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it! 


I 


•'  "'  • 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


VIEWS 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE, 


SUBJECTS  ADJACENT  THERETO, 


HORACE    BUSHNELL. 


HARTFORD: 

EDWIN  HUNT,  NO.  6  ASYLUM  STREET. 
1847. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1847,  by 

EDWIN    HUNT, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Connecticut. 


Press  of 

CASK,    TIFFANY    AND    CO., 

Hartford,  Conn. 


PREFACE. 


As  the  attention  of  the  public  mind  is  now  earnestly  fixed  on  the 
great  subject  of  Christian  Nurture,  it  seems  to  be  a  matter  of  conse- 
quence, if  not  of  justice,  that  those,  who  are  anxious  to  know  the 
merits  of  the  question  in  debate,  should  have  the  means  at  their  com- 
mand. It  was  fortunately  made  a  condition,  when  I  gave  up  the 
manuscript  of  my  "  Discourses"  to  the  Massachusetts  Sabbath 
School  Society,  that  I  should  have  the  right  to  publish  them  myself, 
"  with  other  things."  Encountering,  as  I  do,  every  day,  the  com- 
plaint that  they  cannot  be  had,  I  have  at  length  concluded,  after 
waiting  a  proper  time  for  their  emancipation,  that  it  is  my  duty, 
both  to  the  public  and  also  to  them  as  my  children,  to  give  them 
their  liberty.  There  are  many  very  important  questions  connected 
with  this  subject,  which,  as  yet,  have  been  scarcely  touched  in  our 
discussion,  and  I  would  gladly  have  undertaken  a  new  and  complete 
work,  covering  the  whole  ground,  if  I  had  time  and  strength  for 
such  a  labor.  Perhaps  some  other,  who  is  more  competent,  .will 
assume  the  task.  There  are  some  advantages,  however,  in  having,  the 
discussion  which  is  already  a  matter  of  history  and,  in  that  shape, 
has  its  interest,  preserve  its  historical  form.  I  republish  therefore 
the  '«  Discourses"  and  the  "  Argument,"  in  company  with  three 
or  four  other  articles,  which  have  a  certain  relation  to  the  view 
maintained,  and  will  therefore  assist  the  public  to  come  at  a  more 
thorough  understanding  of  my  general  position.  The  associated 
reasons  too,  which  give  a  truth  its  complement,  are  often  necessary 
to  a  full  and  hearty  conviction  of  its  validity.  Of  course,  it  will 
sometimes  occur>  in  such  a  collection,  that  a  thought  is  repeated. 

The  article  on  the  "  Spiritual  Economy  of  Revivals,"  was  designed 
chiefly  to  remove  that  dismal  state  of  despair  and  lethargy,  con- 
sequent on  the  presumption  practically  held,  that  there  can  be 
nothing  good,  no  real  piety,  save  what  appears  in  the  shape  of  a 
revival, — a  state  which  is  the  most  disheartening  impediment  to  the 


1143847 


4  PREFACE. 

Christian  minister,  that  can  be  conceived.  It  will  not  be  supposed, 
of  course,  that  I  have  any  more  implicit  admiration  of  the  Revival 
system  than  I  had  nine  years  ago,  when  the  article  was  written. 

The  article,  "Growth,  not  Conquest,  the  True  Method  of 
Christian  Progress,"  originally  appeared  under  a  different  title, 
which,  as  a  matter  of  taste,  I  have  preferred  to  change.  It  was  the 
head  on  Christian  training,  in  this  article,  which  led  to  the  prepar- 
ation of  the  "  Discourses,"  and  thus  to  the  present  discussion. 

I  have  added  a  Sermon,  that  was  written  three  or  four  years 
since,  on  the  "  Organic  Unity  of  the  Family,"  only  reproducing 
some  parts  of  the  argument.  This,  it  is  hoped,  will  render  what  I 
have  said  on  that  subject  more  intelligible  to  such  as  have  found 
difficulty  in  realizing  the  truth  of  what  I  have  said  in  more  conden- 
sed forms. 

Also  a  Sermon  written  several  months  since,  which  I  have  enti- 
tled "  The  Scene  of  the  Pentecost  and  a  Christian  Parish,"  the  ob- 
ject of  which  is  to  give  an  external  description  of  the  mode  or  man- 
ner, by  which  a  Christian  church  may  best  advance  the  cause  of  reli- 
gion. Some  persons  get  their  most  satisfactory  impressions  of  a  sub- 
ject through  external  descriptions,  or  inventories,  and  not  through 
interior  principles. 

Not  concealing  the  importance  of  the  question  we  have  now  on 
hand,  let  us  handle  it  earnestly,  neither  fearing  to  make  the  de- 
cision, nor  making  it  hastily.  At  the  same  time,  it  should  be  un- 
derstood and  remembered,  that  the  question  is  one  that  involves,  in 
one  way  or  another,  all  the  most  abstruse  points  in  theology ;  one 
moftover  that  concerns  a  child,  a  very  peculiar  being,  whose  inter- 
nar  history  is  the  darker,  that  it  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of 
aclult  consciousness  and  experience.  Therefore  my  readers  will 
need  to  have  some  patience  with  themselves,  and  it  will  not  be 
wrong  if  they  extend  some  degree  of  patience  tome. 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE. 


DISCOURSE   I. 

EPHESIANS  6:  4.     BRING  THEM  UP  IN  THE  NURTURE  AND  ADMONITION  OF  THE 
LORD. 

THERE  is  then  some  kind  of  nurture  which  is  of  the  Lord, 
deriving  a  quality  and  a  power  from  Him,  and  communicating 
the  same.  Being  instituted  by  Him,  it  will  of  necessity  have  a 
method  and  a  character  peculiar  to  itself,  or  rather  to  Him.  It 
will  be  the  Lord's  way  of  education,  having  aims  appropriate 
to  Him,  and  if  realized  in  its  full  intent,  terminating  in  results 
impossible  to  be  reached  by  any  merely  human  method. 

What  then  is  the  true  idea  of  Christian,  or  divine  nurture,  as 
distinguished  from  that  which  is  not  Christian  ?  What  is  its 
aim?  What  its  method  of  working?  What  its  powers  and 
instruments  ?  What  its  contemplated  results  ?  Few  questions 
have  greater  moment,  and  it  is  one  of  the  pleasant  signs  of  the 
times,  that  the  subject  involved  is  'beginning  to  attract  new  in- 
terest, and  excite  a  spirit  of  inquiry  which  heretofore  has  not 
prevailed  in  our  churches. 

In  ordinary  cases,  the  better  and  more  instructive  way  of 
handling  this  subject,  would  be  to  go  directly  into  the  practical 
methods  of  parental  discipline,  and  show  by  what  modes  of 
government  and  instruction  we  may  hope  to  realize  the  best 
results.  But  unhappily  the  public  mind  is  pre-occupied  exten- 
sively by  a  view  of  the  whole  subject,  which  I  must  regard  as 
1* 


6  DISCOURSES    ON 

a  theoretical  mistake,  and  one  which  must  involve,  as  long  as 
it  continues,  practical  results  systematically  injurious.  This 
mistaken  view  it  is  necessary,  if  possible,  to  remove.  And  ac- 
cordingly what  I  have  to  say  will  take  the  form  of  an  argument 
on  the  question  thus  put  in  issue;  though  I  design  to  gather 
round  the  subject,  as  I  proceed,  as  much  of  practical  instruction 
as  the  mode  of  the  argument  will  suffer.  Assuming  then  the 
question  above  stated,  What  is  the  true  idea  of  Christian  edu- 
cation I — I  answer  in  the  following  proposition,  which  it  will  be 
the  aim  of  my  argument  to  establish,  viz : 

THAT  THE  CHILD  is  TO  GROW  up  A  CHRISTIAN.  In  other  words, 
the  aim,  effort  and  expectation  should  be,  not,  as  Is  commonly 
assumed,  that  the  child  is  to  grow  up  in  sin,  to  be  converted 
after  he  comes  to  a  mature  age ;  but  that  he  is  to  open  on  the 
world  as  one  that  is  spiritually  renewed,  not  remembering  the 
time  when  he  went  through  a  technical  experience,  but  seem- 
ing rather  to  have  lovsd  what  is  good  from  his  earliest  years., 
I  do  not  affirm  that  every  child  may,  in  fact  and  without  excep- 
tion, be  so  trained  that  he  certainly  will  grow  up  a  Christian. 
The  qualifications  it  may  be  necessary  to  add,  will  be  given  in 
another  place,  where  they  can  be  stated  more  intelligibly. 

This  doctrine  is  not  a  novelty,  now  rashly  and  for  the  first 
time  propounded,  as  some  of  you  may  be  tempted  to  suppose. 
I  shall  show  you,  before  I  have  done  with  the  argument,  that  it 
is  as  old  as  the  Christian  church,  and  prevails  extensively  at 
the  present  day,  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  Neither  let  your 
own  experience  raise  a  prejudice  against  it.  If  you  have  en- 
deavored to  realize  the  very  truth  I  here  affirm,  but  find  that 
your  children  do  not  exhibit  the  character  you  have  looked  for ; 
if  they  seem  to  be  intractable  to  religious  influences,  and  some- 
times to  display  an  apparent  aversion  to  the  very  subject  of 
religion  itself,  you  are  not,  of  course,  to  conclude  that  the  doc- 
trine I  here  maintain  is  untrue  or  impracticable.  You  may  be 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  7 

unreasonable  in  your  expectations  of  your  children.  Possibly, 
there  may  be  seeds  of  holy  principle  in  them,  which  you  do  not 
discover.  A  child  acts  out  his  present  feelings,  the  feelings  of 
the  moment,  without  qualification  or  disguise.  And  how,  many 
times,  would  all  you  appear,  if  you  were  to  do  the  same  ?  Will 
you  expect  of  them  to  be  better  and  more  constant  and  con- 
sistent than  yourselves ;  or  will  you  rather  expect  them  to  be 
children,  human  children  still,  living  a  mixed  life,  trying  out  the 
good  and  evil  of  the  world,  and  preparing,  as  older  Christians 
do,  when  they  have  taken  a  lesson  of  sorrow  and  emptiness,  to 
turn  again  to  the  true  good  1  Perhaps  they  will  go  through  a 
rough  mental  struggle,  at  some  future  day,  and  seem,  to  others 
and  to  themselves,  there  to  have  entered  on  a  Christian  life. 
And  yet  it  may  be  true  that  there  was  still  some  root  of  right 
principle  established  in  their  childhood,  which  is  here  only 
quickened  and  developed,  as  when  Christians  of  a  mature  age 
are  revived  in  their  piety,  after  a  period  of  spiritual  lethargy  ; 
for  it  is  conceivable  that  regenerate  character  may  exist,  long 
before  it  is  fully  and  formally  developed.  But  suppose  there  is 
really  no  trace  or  seed  of  holy  principle  in  your  children,  has 
there  been  no  fault  of  piety  and  constancy  in  your  church,  no 
want  of  Christian  sensibility  and  love  to  God,  no  carnal  spirit 
visible  to  them  and  to  all,  and  imparting  its  noxious  and  poison- 
ous quality  to  the  Christian  atmosphere  in  which  they  have  had 
their  nurture  ?  \  For  it  is  not  for  you  alone  to  realize  all  that  is 
included  in  the'Idea  of  Christian  education.  It  belongs  to  the 
church  of  God,  according  to  the  degree  of  its  social  power  over 
you  and  in  you  and  around  your  children,  to  bear  a  part  of  the 
responsibility  with  you.  1  Then,  again,  have  you  nothing  to 
blarne  in  yourselves,  no  lack  of  faithfulness,  no  indiscretion  of 
manner,  or  of  temper,  no  mistake  of  duty,  which,  with  a  better 
and  more  cultivated  piety,  you  would  have  been  able  to  avoid? 
Have  you  been  so  nearly  even  with  your  privilege  and  duty, 
that  you  can  find  no  relief  but  to  lay  some  charge  upon  God,  or 
comfort  yourselves  in  the  conviction  that  he  has  appointed  the 


8  DISCOURSES    ON 

failure  you  deplore  ?  When  God  marks  out  a  plan  of  education, 
or  sets  up  an  aim  to  direct  its  efforts,  you  will  see,  at  once,  that 
he  could  not  base  it  on  a  want  of  piety  in  you,  or  on  any  imper- 
fections that  flow  from  a  want  of  piety.  It  must  be  a  plan 
measured  by  Himself  and  the  fullness  of  his  own  gracious  inten- 
tions. Besides,  you  must  not  assume  that  we,  in  this  age,  are 
the  best  Christians  that  have  ever  lived,  or  most  likely  to  pro- 
duce all  the  fruits  of  piety.  An  assumption  so  pleasing  to  our 
vanity  is  more  easily  made  than  verified,  but  vanity  is  the  weak- 
est as  it  is  the  cheapest  of  all  arguments.  We  have  some 
good  points,  in  which  we  compare  favorably  with  other  Chris- 
tians, and  Christians  of  other  times,  but  our  style  of  piety  is 
sadly  deficient,  in  many  respects,  and  that  to  such  a  degree  that 
we  have  little  cause  for  self  congratulation.  With  all  our  ac- 
tivity and  boldness  of  movement,  there  is  a  certain  hardness 
and  rudeness,  a  want  of  sensibility  to  things  that  do  no.t  lie  in 
action,  which  cannot  be  too  much  deplored,  or  too  soon  rectifi- 
ed. We  hold  a  piety  of  conquest  rather  than  of  love.  A  kind 
of  public  piety  that  is  strenuous  and  fiery  on  great  occasions, 
but  wants  the  beauty  of  holiness,  wants  constancy,  singleness 
of  aim,  loveliness,  purity,  richness,  blamelessness,  and — if  I  may 
add  another  term  riot  so  immediately  religious,  but  one  that 
carries,  by  association,  a  thousand  religious  qualities — wants 
domesticity  of  character  ;  wants  them,  I  mean,  not  as  compared 
with  the  perfect  standard  of  Christ,  but  as  compared  with 
other  examples  of  piety  that  have  been  given  in  former  times, 
and  others  that  are  given  now. 

For  some  reason,  we  do  not  make  a  Christian  atmosphere 
about  us, — do  not  produce  the  conviction  that  we  are  living  unto 
God.  There  is  a  marvelous  want  of  savor  in  our  piety.  It  is 
a  flower  of  autumn,  colored  as  highly  as  it  need  be  to  the  eye, 
but  destitute  of  fragrance.  It  is  too  much  to  hope  that,  with 
such  an  instrument,  we  can  fulfill  the  true  idea  of  Christian  ed- 
ucation. Any  such  hope  were  even  presumptuous.  At  the 
same  time,  there  is  no  so  ready  way  of  removing  the  deficien- 


CHRISTIAN   NURTURE.  9 

cies  just  described,  as  to  recall  our  churches  to  their  duties  in 
domestic  lite ;  those  humble,  daily,  hourly  duties,  where  the 
spirit  we  breathe  shall  be  a  perpetual  element  of  power  and 
love  bathing  the  life  of  childhood. 

Thus  much  it  was  necessary  to  say,  for  the  removal  of  preju- 
dices, that  are  likely  to  rise  up  in  your  minds,  and  make  you 
inaccessible  to  the  arguments  I  may  offer.  Let  all  such  preju- 
dices be  removed,  or,  if  this  be  too  much,  let  them,  at  least,  be 
suspended  till  you  have  heard  what  I  have  to  advance ;  for  it 
cannot  be  desired  ot  you  to  believe  any  thing  more  than  what 
is  shown  you  by  adequate  proofs.  Which  also  it  is  right  to  ask, 
that  you  will  hear,  if  offered,  in  a  spirit  of  mind,  such  as  be- 
comes our  wretched  and  low  attainments,  and  with  a  willing- 
ness to  let  God  be  exalted,  though  at  the  expense  of  some 
abasement  in  ourselves.  In  pursuing  the  argument,  I  shall 

I.  Collect  some  considerations  which  occur  to  us,  viewing  the 
subject  on  the  human  side,  and  then — 

II.  Show  how  far  and  by  what  methods  God  has  justified,  on 
his  part,  the  doctrine  we  maintain. 

TliL're  is  then,  as  the  subject  appears  to  us — 
1.  No  absurdity  in  supposing  that  children  are  to  grow  up  in 
Christ.  On  the  other  hand,  if  there  is  no  absurdity,  there  is  a 
very  clear  moral  incongruity  in  setting  up*  a  contrary  supposi- 
tion, to  be  the  aim  of  a  system  of  Christian  education.  There 
could  not  be  a  worse  or  more  baleful  implication  given  to  a 
child,  than  that  he  is-  to  reject  God  and  all  holy  principle,  till 
he  has  come  to  a  mature  age.  What  authority  have  you  from 
the  Scriptures  to  tell  your  child,  or,  by  any  sign,  to  show  him 
that  you  do  not  expect  him  truly  to  love  and  obey  God,  till  after 
he  has  spent  whole  years  in  hatred  and  wrong?  What  au- 
thority to  make  him  feel  that  he  is  the  most  unprivileged  of  all 
human  beings,  capable  of  sin,  but  incapable  of  repentance  ;  old 
enough  TO  resist  all  good,  but  too  young  to  receive  any  good 
whatever?  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  you  have  some 
express  authority  for  a  lesson  so  manifestly  cruel  and  hurtful, 


1Q  DISCOURSES    ON 

else  you  would  shudder  to  give  it.  I  ask  you  for  the  chapter 
and  verse,  out  of  which  it  is  derived.  Meantime,  wherein 
would  it  be  less  incongruous  for  you  to  teach  your  child  that  he 
is  to  lie  and  steal,  and  go  the  whole  round  of  the  vices  and  then, 
after  he  comes  to  mature  age,  reform  his  conduct  by  the  rules 
of  virtue  ?  Perhaps  you  do  not  give  your  child  to  expect  that 
he  is  to  grow  up  in  sin,  you  only  expect  that  he  will  yourself. 
That  is  scarcely  better,  for  that  which  is  your  expectation,  will 
assuredly  be  his ;  and  what  is  more,  any  attempt  to  maintain  a 
discipline  at  war  with  your  own  secret  expectations,  will  only 
make  a  hollow  and  worthless  figment  of  that  which  should  be 
an  open  earnest  reality.  You  will  never  practically  aim  at 
what  you  practically  despair  of,  and  if  you  do  not  practically 
aim  to  unite  your  child  to  God,  you  will  aim  at  something  less, 
that  is,  something  unchristian,  wrong,  sinful. 

But  my  child  is  a  sinner,  you  will  say,  and  how  can  I  expect 
him  to  begin  aright  life,  until  God  gives  him  a  new  heart? 
This  is  the  common  way  of  speaking,  and  I  state  the  objection 
in  its  own  phraseology,  that  it  may  recognize  itself.  Who  then 
has  told  you  that  a  child  cannot  have  the  new  heart  of  which 
you  speak  1  Whence  do  you  learn  that  if  you  live  the  life  of 
Christ,  before  him  and  with  him,  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life 
may  not  be  such  as  to  include  and  quicken  him  also  ?  And  why 
should  it  be  thought  incredible  that  there  should  be  some  really 
good  principle  awakened  in  the  mind  of  a  child  ?  For  this  is 
all  that  is  implied  in  a  Christian  state.  The  Christian  is  one 
who  has  simply  begun  to  love  what  is  good  for  its  own  sake, 
and  why  should  it  be  thought  impossible  for  a  child  to  have 
this  love  begotten  in  him  ?  Take  any  scheme  of  depravity  you 
please,  there  is  yet  nothing  in  it  to  forbid  the  possibility  that  a 
child  should  be  led,  in  his  first  moral  act,  to  cleave  unto  what  is 
good  and  right,  any  more  than  in  the  first  oi'his  twentieth  year. 
He  is,  in  that  case,  only  a  child  converted  to  good,  leading  a 
mixed  life  as  all  Christians  do.  The  good  in  him  goes  into 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  H 

combat  with  the  evil,  and  holds  a  qualified  sovereignty.  And 
why  may  not  this  internal  conflict  of  goodness  cover  the  whole 
life  from  its  dawn,  as  well  as  any  part  of  it?  And  what  more 
appropriate  to  the  doctrine  of  spiritual  influence  itself,  than  to 
believe  that  as  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah  fills  all  the  worlds  of  mat- 
ter, and  holds  a  presence  of  power  and  government  in  all  ob- 
jects, so  all  human  souls,  the  infantile  as  well  as  the  adult,  have 
«,  nurture  of  the  Spirit  appropriate  to  their  age  and  their 
wants  ?  What  opinion  is  more  essentially  monstrous,  in  fact, 
than  that  which  regards  the  Holy  Spirit  as  having  no  agency 
in  the  immature  souls  of  children,  who  are  growing  up  helpless 
and  unconscious  into  the  perils  of  time? 

2.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  Christian  education  will  radically 
differ  from  that  which  is  not  Christian.!  Now  it  is  the  very 
character  and  mark  of  all  unchrisjian  education,  that  it  brings 
up  the  child  for  future  conversion.  ^No  effort  is  made,  save  to 
form  a  habit  of  outward  virtue,  and,  if  God  please  to  convert  the 
family  to  something  higher  and  better,  after  they  come  to  the 
age  of  maturity,  it  is  well.  Is  then  Christian  education,  or  the 
nurture  of  the  Lord,  no  way  different  from  this  ?  Or  is  it  rather 
to  be  supposed  that  it  will  have  a  higher  aim  and  a  more  sacred 
character. 

And,  since  it  is  the  distinction  of  Christian  parents,  that  they 
are  themselves  in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord,  since  Christ  and  the 
Divine  Love,  communicated  through  him,  are  become  the  food 
of  their  life,  what  will  they  so  naturally  seek  as  to  have  their 
children  partakers  with  them,  heirs  together  with  them  in  the 
grace  of  life?  I  am  well  aware  of  the  common  impression  that 
Christian  education  is  sufficiently  distinguished  by  the  endeavor 
,of  Christian  parents  to  teach  their  children  the  lessons  of  scrip- 
ture history,  and  the  doctrines  or  dogmas  of  scripture  theology. 
But  if  they  are  given  to  understand,  at  the  same  time,  that  these 
lessons  can  be  expected  to  produce  no  fruit  till  they  are  come 
jto  a  mature  age,  that  they  are  to  grow  up  still  in  the  same  char- 


12  DISCOURSES    OX 

acter  as  other  children  do,  who  have  no  such  instruction,  what 
is  this  but  to  enforce  the  practical  rejection  of  all  the  lessons 
taught  them  ?  And  which,  in  truth,  is  better  for  them,  to  grow 
up  in  sin  under  scripture  light,  with  a  heart  hardened  by  so 
many  religious  lessons;  or  to  grow  up  in  sinunvexed  and  unan- 
noyed,  by  the  wearisome  drill  of  lectures  that  only  discourage 
all  practical  benefit  1  Which  is  better,  to  be  piously  brought  up 
to  sin,  or  to  be  allowed  quietly  to  vegetate  in  it?  These  are 
questions  that  I  know  not  how  to  decide,  but  the  doubt  in  which 
they  leave  us,  will  at  least  suffice  to  show  that  Christian  educa- 
tion has,  in  this  view,  no  such  eminent  advantages  over  that 
which  is  unchristian,  as  to  raise  any  broad  and  dignified  distinc- 
tion between  them.  We  certainly  know  that  much  of  what  is 
called  Christian  nurture,  only  serves  to  make  the  subject  of 
religion  odious,  and  that,  as  nearly  as  we  can  discover,  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  amount  of  religious  teaching  received.  And 
no  small  share  of  the  difficulty  to  be  overcome  afterwards,  in 
the  struggle  of  conversion,  is  created  in  just  this  way.  On  the 
other  hand,  you  will  hear,  for  example,  of  cases  like  the  follow- 
ing. A  young  man,  correctly  but  not  religiously  brought  up, 
light  and  gay  in  his  manners  and  thoughtless  hitherto  in  regard 
to  any  thing  of  a  serious  nature,  happens  accidentally  one  Sun- 
day, while  his  friends  are  gone  to  ride,  to  take  down  a  book  on 
the  evidences  of  Christianity.  His  eye,  floating  over  one  of  the 
pages,  becomes  fixed,  and  he  is  surprised  to  find  his  feelings 
flowing  out  strangely  into  its  holy  truths.  He  is  conscious  of 
no  struggle  of  hostility,  but  a  new  joy  dawns  in  his  being. 
Henceforth,  to  the  end  of  a  long  and  useful  life,  he  is  a  Chris- 
tian man.  The  love  into  which  he  was  surprised  continues  to 
flow,  and  he  is  remarkable,  in  the  churches,  all  his  life  long,  as 
one  of  the  most  beautiful,  healthful  and  dignified  examples  of 
Christian  piety.  Now  a  very  little  mis-education,  called  Chris- 
tian, discouraging  the  piety  it  teaches,  and  making  enmity  itself 
a  necessary  ingredient  in  the  struggle  of  conversion,  conversion 
no  reality  without  a  struggle,  might  have  sufficed  to  close  th«^ 


CHRI  STIAN    NURTURE.  13 

mind  of  this  man  against  every  thought  of  religion  to  the  end 
of  life.    Such  facts,  (for  the  case  above  given  is  a  fact  and  not  a 
fancy )  compel  us  to  suspect  the  value  of  much  that  is  called 
Christian  education.    They  suggest  the  possibility  also  that, 
Christian  piety  should  begin  in  oiher  and  milder  forms  of  exer- 
cise, than  those  which  commonly  distinguish  the  conversion  of 
adults— that  Christ  himself,  by  that  renewing  Spirit  who  can; 
sanctify  from  the  womb,  should  be  practically  infused  into  the, 
childish  mind ;  in  other  words,  thatfthe  house,  having  a  domes-     i 
tic  Spirit  of  grace  dwelling  in  it,  should  become  the  church  of   I 
childhood,  the  table  and  hearth  a  holy  rite,  and  life  an  element 
of  saving  power^    Something  is  wanted  that  is  better  than 
teaching,  something  that  transcends  mere  effort  and  will-work — 
the  loveliness  of  a  good  life,  the  repose  of  faith,  the  confidence 
of  righteous  expectation,  the  sacred  and  cheerful  liberty  of  the 
Spirit — all  glowing  about  the  young  soul,  as  a  warm  and  genial 
nurture,  and  forming  in  it,  by  methods  that  are  silent  and  im- 
perceptible, a  spirit  of  duty  and  religious  obedience  to  God.   This 
|    only  is  Christian  nurture,  the  nurture  of  the  Lord. 

3.  It  is  a  fact  that  all  Christian  parents  would  like  to  see  their 
children  grow  up  in  piety  ;  and,  the  better  Christians  they  are, 
the  more  earnestly  they  desire  it ;  and,  the  more  lovely  and 
constant  the  Christian  spirit  they  manifest,  the  more  likely  is  it, 
in  general,  that  their  children  will  early  display  the  Christian 
character.  This  is  current  opinion.  But  why  should  a  Chris- 
tian parent,  the  deeper  his  piety  and  the  more  closely  he  is 
drawn  to  God,  be  led  to  desire,  the  more  earnestly,  what,  in 
God's  view,  is  even  absurd  or  impossible.'  And,  if  it  be  gener- 
ally seen  that  the  children  of  such  are  the  more  likely  to  become 
Christians  early,  what  forbids  the  hope  that,  if  they  were  better 
Christians  still,  living  a  more  single  and  Christ-like'Iife,  and 
more  cultivated  in  their  views  of  family  nurture,  they  might 
not  see  their  children  grow  up  in  piety  towards  God.  Or  if  they 
may  not  always  see  it  as  clearly  as  they  desire,  might  they  not 

still  be  able  to  implant  some  holy  principle,  which  shall  be  the 
2 


*  rt-,. 


14  DISCOURSES    ON 

seed  of  a  Christian  character  in  their  children,  though  not  de- 
veloped fully  and  visibly  till  a  later  period  in  life  1 

4.  Assuming  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  when  should 
we  think  it  wisest  to  undertake  or  expect  a  remedy  ?  When 
evil  is  young  and  oliant  to  good,  or  when  it  is  confirmed  by  years 
of  sinful  habit  ?  \  And  when,  in  fact,  is  the  human  heart  found 
to  be  so  ductile  to  the  motives  of  religion,  as  in  the  simple,  in- 
genuous age  of  childhood?  How  easy  it  is  then,  as  compared 
with  the  stubbornness  of  adult  years,  to  make  all  wrong  seem 
odious,  all  good  lovely  and  desirabl^T  Jf  not  discouraged  by 
some  ill-temper,  which  bruises  all  the  gentle  sensibilities,  or 
repelled  by  some  technical  view  of  religious  character,  which 
puts  it  beyond  his  age,  how  ready  is  the  child  to  be  taken  by 
good,  as  it  were,  beforehand,  and  yield  his  ductile  nature  to  the 
truth  and  Spirit  of  God,  and  to  a  fixed  prejudice  against  all  that 
God  forbids.  He  cannot  understand,  of  course,  in  the  earliest 
stage  of  childhood,  the  philosophy  of  religion  as  a  renovated 
experience,  and  that  is  not  the  form  of  the  first  lessons  he  is  to 
receive.  He  is  not  to  be  told  that  he  musthave  a  new  heart 
and  exercise  faith  in  Christ's  atonement,  f  We  are  to  under- 
stand, that  a  right  spirit  may  be  virtually  exercised  in  children. 
when,  as  yet,  it  is  not  intellectually  received,  or  as  a  form  of 
doctrine.  Thus  if  they  are  put  upon  an  effort  to  be  good,  con- 
necting the  fact  that  God  desires  it  and  will  help  them  in  the 
endeavor,  that  is  ail  which,  in  a  very  early  age,  they  can  receive, 
and  that  includes  every  thing— repentance,  love,  duty,  depend- 
ence, faith.  Nay,  the  operative  truth  necessary  to  a  new  life, 
may  possibly"ue  communicated  through  and  from  the  parent, 
being  revealed  in  his  looks,  manners  and  ways  of  life,  before 
they  are  of  an  age  to  understand  the  teaching  of  words;  for  the 
Christian  scheme,  the  gospel,  is  really  wrapped  up  in  the  life  of 
every  Christian  parent  and  beams  out  from  him  as  a  living  epis- 
tle, before  it  escapes  from  the  lips,  or  is  taught  in  words.  And 
the  Spirit  of  truth  may  as  well  make  this  living  truth  effectual, 
as  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  itself.  Never  is  it  too  early  for 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  15 


good  to  be  communicated.    Infancy  and  childhood  are  the  ages  . 
tv  gffftd.     And  who  can  think  it  necessary  that  the 


plastic  nature  of  childhood  must  first  be  hardened  into  stone, 
and  stiffened  into  enmity  towards  God  and  all  duty,  before  it 
can  become  a  candidate  for  Christian  character  !  There  could 
not  be  a  more  unnecessary  mistake,  and  it  is  as  unnatural  and 
pernicious,  I  fear,  as  it  is  unnecessary. 

There  are  many  who  assume  the  radical  goodness  of  human 
nature,  and  the  work  of  Christian  education  is,  in  their  view, 
only  to  educate,  or  educe  the  good  that  is  in  us.    Let  no  one  be 
disturbed  by  the  suspicion  of  a  coincidence  between  what  I  have 
here  said  and  such  a  theory.    The  natural  pravity  of  man  is   , 
plainly  asserted  in  the  scriptures,  and,  if  it  were  not,  the  famil- 
iar laws  of  physiology  v/ould  require  us  to  believe,  what  amounts 
to  the  same  thing.    And  if  neither  scripture  nor  physiology 
taught  us  the  doctrine,  if  the  child  was  born  as  clear  of  natural 
prejudice  or  damage,  as  Adam  before  his  sin,  spiritual  educa- 
tion, or,  what  is  the  same,  probation,  thatvv  hich  trains  a  being 
for  a  stable,  intelligent  virtue  hereafter,  would  still  involve  an 
experiment  of  evil,  therefore  a  fall  and  bondage  under  the  laws 
of  evil  ;  so  that,  view  the  matter  as  we  will,  there  is  no  so  un- 
reasonable assumption,  none  so  wide  of  all  just  philosophy,  as 
that  which  proposes  to  form  a  child  to  virtue,  by  simply  edu- 
cing or  drawing  out  what  is  in  him.    The  growth  of  Christian 
virtue  is  no  vegetable  process,  no  mere  onward  development. 
It  involves  a  struggle  with  evil,  a  fall  and  rescue.    The  soul 
becomes  established  in  holy  virtue,  as  a  free  exercise,  only  as  it 
is  passed  round  the  corner  of  fall  and  redemption,  ascending  thus 
unto  God  through  a  double  experience,  in  which  it  learns  the 
bitterness  of  evil  and  the  worth  of  good,  fighting  its  way  out  of 
one  and  achieving  the  other  as  a  victory.    The  child,  therefore, 
may  as  well  begin  life  under  a  law  of  hereditary  damage,  as  to 
plunge  himself  into  evil  by  his  own  experiment,  which  he  will 
as  naturally  do  from  the  simple  impulse  of  curiosity,  or  the  in- 
stinct of  knowledge,  as  from  any  noxious  quality  in  his  mold 


]  (J  DISCOURSES    ON 

derived  by  descent.  For  it  is  not  sin  which  he  derives  from  hi? 
parents;  atleasi  not  sin  in  any  sense  which  imports  blame,  but 
only  some  prejudice  to  the  perfect  harmony  of  his  mold<  some 
kind  of  pravity  or  obliquity  which  inclines  him  to  evil.  These 
suggestions  are  offered,  not  as  necessary  to  be  received  in  every 
particular,  but  simply  to  show  that  the  scheme  of  education 
proposed,  is  not  to  be  identified  with  another,  which  assumes 
the  radical  goodness  of  human  nature,  and  according  to  which, 
if  it  be  true,  Christian  education  is  insignificant.  J 

5.  It  is  implied  in  all  our  religious  philosophy,  that  if  a  child 
ever  does  any  thing  in  a  right  spirit,  ever  loves  any  thing  be- 
cause it  is  good  and  right,  it  involves  the  dawn  of  a  new  life. 
This  we  cannot  deny  or  doubt,  without  bringing  in  question  our 
whole  scheme  of  doctrine.  Is  it  then  incredible  that  some  really 
good  feeling  should  be  called  into  exercise  in  a  child  \  In  all  the 
discipline  of  the  house,  quickened  as  it  should  be  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  is  it  true  that  he  can  nev«r  once  be  brought  to  submit  to 
parental  authority  lovingly  and  because  it  is  right  1  Must  we 
even  hold  the  absurdity  of  the  scripture  counsel— u  Children, 
obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord,  for  this  is  right "  1  -When  we 
speak  thus  of  a  love  to  what  is  right  and  good,  we  must  of  course 
discriminate  between  the  mere  excitement  of  a  natural  sensi- 
bility to  pleasure  in  the  contemplation  of  what  is  good,  (of  which 
the  wougt  minds  are  more  or  less  capable)  and  a  practical  sub- 
ordinatioi^  of  the  soul  to  its  power,  a  practical  embrace  of  its 
law.  The  child  must  not  only  be  touched  with  some  gentle 
emotions  towards  what  is  right,  but  he  must  love  it  with  a  fixed 
love,  love  it  for  the  sake  of  its  principle,  receive  it  as  a  vital  and 
formative  power.  Nor  is  there  any  age,  which  offers  itself  to 
God's  truth  and  love,  and  to  that  quickening  spirit  whence  all 
good  proceeds,  ytiih  so  much  of  ductile  feeling  and  susceptibil- 
ities so  tender.  The  child  is  under  parental  authority  too  for 

^ 

the  very  purpose,  it  would  seem,  of  having  the  otherwise  ab- 
stract principle  of  all  duty  impersonated  in  his  parents  and 
thus  brought  home  to  his  practical  embrace ;  so  that,  learning 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  17 

to  obey  his  parents  in  the  Lord  because  it  is  right,  he  may  thus 
receive,  before  he  can  receive  it  intellectually,  the  principle  of 
all  piety  and  holy  obediencej  And  when  he  is  brought  to  exer- 
cise a  spirit  of  true  and  loving  submission  to  the  good  law  of  his 
parents,  what  will  you  see,  many  times,  but  a  look  of  childish 
joy  and  a  happy  sweetness  of  manner  and  a  ready  delight  in 
authority,  as  like  to  all  the  demonstrations  of  Christian  experi- 
ence, as  any  thing  childish  can  be  to  what  is  mature  ? 

6.  Children  have  been  so  trained  as  never  to  remember  the 
time  when  they  began  to  be  religious.  Baxter  was,  at  one  time, 
greatly  ^troubled  concerning  himself,  because  he  could  recollect 
no  time,  when  there  was  a  gracious  change  in  his  character. 
But  he  discovered,  at  length,  that  "education  is  as  properly  a 
means  of  grace  as  preaching,"  and  thus  found  a  sweeter  com- 
fort in  his  love  to  God,  that  he  learned  to  love  him  so  early. 
The  European  churches,  generally,  regard  Christian  piety 
more  as  a  habit  of  life,  formed  under  the  training  of  childhood, 
and  less  as  a  marked  spiritual  change  in  experience.  In  Ger- 
many, for  example,  the  church  includes  all  the  people,  and  it  is 
remarkable  that,  under  a  scheme  so  loose,  and  with  so  much  of 
pernicious  error  taught  in  the  pulpit,  there  is  yet  so  much  of 
deep  religious  feeling,  so  much  of  lovely  and  simple  character, 
and  a  savor  of  Christian  piety  so  generally  prevalent  in  the  com- 
munity. So  true  is  this,  that  the  German  people  are  every  day 
spoken  of  as  a  people  religious  by  nature ;  no  other  way  being 
observed  of  accounting  for  the  strong  religious  bent  they  mani- 
fest. Whereas  it  is  due,  beyond  any  reasonable  question,  to 
the  fact  that  children  are  placed  under  a  form  of  treatment 
which  expects  them  to  be  religious,  and  are  not  discouraged  by 
the  demand  of  an  experience  above  their  years.  Again,  the 
Moravian  Brethren,  it  is  agreed  by  all,  give  as  ripe  and  grace- 
ful an  exhibition  of  piety,  as  any  body  of  Christians  living  on  the 
earth,  and  it  is  the  radical  distinction  of  their  system  that  it  rests 
its  power  on  Christian  education.  They  make  their  churches 

schools  of  holy  nurture  to  childhood,  and  expect  their  children 
2* 


18  DISCOURSES    ON 

to  grow  up  there,  as  plants  in  the  house  ol  the  Lord.  Accord- 
ingly it  is  affirmed  that  not  one  in  ten  of  the  members  ol  that 
church,  recollects  any  time,  when  he  began  to  be  religious.  Is 
it  then  incredible  that  what  has  been  can  be  ?  Would  it  not  be 
wiser  and  more  modest,  when  facts  are  against  us,  to  admit  that 
there  is  certainly  some  bad  error,  either  in  our  life,  or  in  our 
doctrine,  or  in  both,  which  it  becomes  us  to  amend  ? 

Once  more,  if  we  narrowly  examine  the  relation  of  parent 
and  child,  we  shall  not  fail  to  discover  something  like  a  law  of 
organic  connection,*  as  regards  character,  subsisting  between 
them.  Such  a  connection  as  makes  it  easy  to  believe,  and 
natural  to  expect  that  the  faith  of  the  one  will  be  propagated 
in  the  other.  Perhaps  I  should  rather  say,  such  a  connection 
as  induces  the  conviction  that  the  character  of  one  is  actually 
included  in  that  of  the  other,  as  a  seed  is  formed  in  the  capsule ; 
and  being  there  matured,  by  a  nutriment  derived  from  the  stem, 
is  gradually  separated  from  it.  It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  many 
believe  substantially  the  same  thing,  in  regard  to  evil  character, 
but  have  no  thought  of  any  such  possibility  in  regard  to  good. 
There  has  been  much  speculation,  of  late,  as  to  whether  a  child 
is  born  in  depravity,  or  whether  the  depraved  character  is  su- 
perinduced afterwards.  But,  like  many  other  great  questions, 
it  determines  much  less  than  is  commonly  suppofjgd ;  for,  ac- 
cording to  the  most  proper  view  of  the  subject,  a  child  is  really 
not  born  till  he  emerges  from  the  infantile  state,  and  never 


*  Some  persons  have  blamed  the  use  here  made  of  the  term  "  organic,"  as  a 
singularity  of  mine.  So  far  from  that,  it  is  a  term  in  common  philosophic  use  in 
connection  with  all  the  great  questions  of  government  and  society.  The  days 
of  the  "  social  compact"  theory,  for  example,  are  gone  by,  and  it  is  now  held 
by  almost  all  the  late  writers,  that  we  naturally  exist  as  organic  bodies,  just  as 
we  do  as  individuals,  and  that  civil  government  is  born  with  us,  in  virtue  of  our 
organic  unity  in  bodies  or  States — that  the  State  must  legislate  for  itself  in 
Borne  way,  just  as  the  conscience  legislates  for  the  individual.  Government  is, 
in  this  view,  the  organic  conscience  of  the  State — no  matter  what  may  he  the 
form,  or  who  presides. 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  19 

before  that  time  can  be  said  to  receive  a  separate  and  properly 
individual  nature.  The  declaration  of  scripture,  and  the  laws 
of  physiology,  I  have  already  intimated,  compel  the  belief  that 
a  child's  nature  is  somehow  depravated  by  descent  from  parents, 

v  who  are  under  the  corrupting  effects  of  sin.  JBut  this,  taken 
as  a  question  relating  to  the  mere  punctum  temporis,  or  pre- 
cise point  of  birth,  is  not  a  question  of  any  so  grave  import, 
as  is  generally  supposed ;  for  the  child,  after  birth,  is  still  within 
the  matrix  of  the  parental  life,  and  will  be  more  or  less,  for 
many  years.  And*the  parental  life  will  be  flowing  into  him  all 

/  that  time,  just  as  naturally,  and  by  a  law  as  truly  organic,  as 
when  the  sap  of  the  trunk  flows  into  a  limb.  We  must  not 
govern  our  thoughts,  in  such  a  matter,  by  our  eyes ;  and  be- 
cause the  physical  separation  has  taken  place,  conclude  that 
no  organic  relation  remains.  Even  the  physical  being  of  the 
child  is  dependent  still  for  nutrition  on  organic  processes  not 
in  itself.  Meantime,  the  mental  being  and  character  have 
scarcely  begun  to  have  a  proper  individual  life.  Will,  in  con- 
nection  with  conscience,  is  the  basis  of  personality,  or  individ- 
uality, and  these  exist  as  yet  only  in  their  rudimental  type,  as 
when  the  form  of  a  seed  is  beginning  to  be  unfolded  at  the  root 
of  a  flower.  At.  first,  the  child  is  held  as  a  mere  passive  lump 
in  the  arms,  and  he  opens  into  conscious  life  under  the  soul  of 
the  parent  streaming  into  his  eyes  and  ears,  through  the  man- 
ners and  tones  of  the  nursery.  The  kind  and  degree  of  pas- 
sivity are  gradually  changed  as  life  advances.  A  little  farther 
on  it  is  observed  that  a  smile  wakens  a  smile— any  kind  of  sen- 
timent or  passion,  playing  in  the  face  of  the  parent,  wakens  a 
responsive  sentiment  or  passion.  Irritation  irritates,  a  frown 
withers,  love  expands  a  look  congenial  to  iteelf,  and  why  not 
holy  love  ?  Next  the  ear  is  opened  to  the  understanding  of 
words,  but  what  words  the  child  shall  hear,  he  cannot  choose, 
and  has  as  little  capacity  to  select  the  sentiments  that  are 
poured  into  his  soul.  Farther  on,  the  parents  begin  to  govern 
him  by  appeals  to  will,  expressed  in  commands,  and  whatever 

/?.. 


20  DISCOURSES    ON 

their  requirement  may  be,  he  can  as  -little  withstand  it,  as  the 
violet  can  cool  the  scorching  sun,  or  the  tattered  leaf  can  tame 
the  hurricane.  Next  they  appoint  his  school,  choose  his  books, 
regulate  his  company,  decide  what  form  of  religion,  and  what 
religious  opinions  he  shajl  be  taught,  by  taking  him  to  a  church 
of  their  own  selection.;  In  all  this,  they  infringe  upon  no  right  of 
the  child,  they  only  fulfi&an  office  which  belongs  to  them.  Their 
will  and  character  are  designed  to  be  the  matrix  of  the  child's 
will  and  character.  Meantime  he  approaches  more  and  more 
closely,  and  by  a  gradual  process,  to  the  proper  rank  and  re- 
sponsibility of  an  individual  creature,  during  all  which  process 
of  separation,  he  is  having  their  exercises  and  ways  translated 
into  him.  Then,  at  last,  he  comes  forth  to  act  his  part  in  such 
color  of  evil,  (and  why  not  of  good?  )  as  he  has  derived  from 
them.  The  tendency  of  all  our  modern  speculations  is  to  an 
extreme  individualism,  and  we  carry  our  doctrines  of  free  will 
so  far  as  to  make  little  or  nothing  of  organic  laws ;  not  observ- 
ing that  character  may  be,  to  a  great  extent,  only  the  free  de- 
velopment of  exercises  previously  wrought  in  us,  or^extended 
to  us,  when  other  wills  had  us  within  their  sphere.  _1A11  the 
Baptist  theories  of  religion  are  based  in  this  error.  They  as- 
sume as  a  first  truth,  that  no  such  thing  is  possible  as  an  or- 
ganic connection  of  character,  an  assumption  which  is  plainly 
refuted  by  what  we  see  with  our  eyes,  and,  as  I  shall  by  and 
by  show,  by  the  declarations  of  scripture.  We  have  much 
to  say  also,  in  common  with  the  Baptists,  abput  the  beginning 
of  moral  agency,  and  we  seem  to  fancy  tha^Jthere  is  some  defi- 
nite moment  when  a  child  becomes  a  moral  agent,  passing  out 
of  a  condition  where  he  is  a  moral  nullity,  and  where  no  moral 
agency  touches  his  beingj\  Whereas  he  is  rather  to  be  regarded 
at  the  first,  as  lying  within  the  moral  agency  of  the  parent 
and  passing  out  by  degrees  through  a  com  se  ofrfnixed  agency,  to 
a  proper  independency  and  self-possession.  "The  supposition 
that  he  becomes,  at  some  certain  moment,  a  complete  moral 
agent,  which  a  moment  before  he  was  not,  is  clumsy  and  has 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  gL 

no  agreement  with  observation.  The  separation  is  gradual/ 
He  is  never,  at  any  moment  after  birth,  to  be  regarded  as  per- 
fectly beyond  the  sphere  of  good  and  bad  exercises ;  for  the 
parent  exercises  himself  in  the  child,  playing  his  emotions  and 
sentiments,  and  working  a  character  in  him,  by  virtue  of  an 
organic  power  ."^And  this  is  the  very  idea  of  Christian  educa- 
tion, that  it  begins  with  nurture  or  cultivation.  And  the  inten- 
tion is  that  the  Christian  life  and  spirit  of  the  parents  shall  flow 
into  the  mind  of  the  child,  to  blend  with  his  incipient  and  half- 
formed  exercises ;  that  they  shall  thus  beget  their  own  good 
within  him,  their  thoughts,  opinions,  faith  and  love,  which  are 
to  become  a  little  more,  and  yet  a  little  more- his  own  sepa-  j 
rate  exercise,  but  still  the  same  in  character  .J  The  contrary 
assumption,  that  virtue  must  be  the  product  of  separate  and 
absolutely  independent  choice,  is  pure  assumption.  As  regards 
the  measure  of  personal  merit  and  demerit,  it  is  doubtless  true 
that  every  subject  of  God  is  to  be  responsible  only  for  what  is 
his  own.  But  virtue  still  is  rather  a  slate  of  being  than  an  act 
or  series  of  acts;  and  if  we  look  at  the  causes  which  induce  or 
prepare  sach  a  state,  the  will  of  the  person  himself  may  have 
a  part  among  those  causes  more  or  less  important,  and  it 
works  no  absurdity  to  suppose  that  one  may  be  even  prepared 
to  such  a  state,  by  causes  prior  to  his  own  will ;  so  that,  when 
he  sets  off  to  act  for  himself,  his  struggle  and  duty  may  be 
rather  to  sustain  and  perfect  the  state  begun,  than  to  produce 
a  new  one.  Certain  it  is  that  we  are  never,  at  any  age,  so  in- 
dependent asHto  be  wholly  out  of  the  reach  of  organic  laws 
which  affect  our  character.  All  society  is  organic — the  church, 
the  state,  the  school,  the  family, — and  there  is  a  spirit  in  each 
of  these  organisms,  peculiar  to  itself,  and  more  or  less  hostile, 
more  or  less  favorable  to  religious  character,  anjl-to  some  ex- 
tent, at  least,  sovereign  over  the  individual  man,  .A  very  great 
share  of  the  power  in  what  is  called  a  revival  of  religion,  is 
organic  power  ;  nor  is  it  any  the  less  divine  on  that  account. 
The  child  is  only  more  within  the  power  of  organic  laws  than 


22  DISCOURSES    ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE. 

we  all  are.  We  possess  only  a  mixed  individuality  all  our  life 
long.  A  pure,  separate,  individual  man,  living  wholly  within, 
and  from  himself,  is  a  mere  fiction.  No  such  person  ever  ex- 
isted, or  ever  can.  I  need  not  say  that  khis  view  of  an  organic 
connection  of  character  subsisting  between  parent  and  child, 
lays  a  basis  for  notions  of  Christian  education,  far  different 
from  those  which  now  prevail,  under  thereover  of  a  merely  fic- 
titious and  mischievous  individualism.  \ 

Perhaps  it  may  be  necessary  to  add,  that,  in  the  strong  lan- 
guage I  have  used  concerning  the  organic  connection  of  cha- 
racter between  the  parent  and  the  child,  it  is  not  designed  to 
assert  a  power  in  the  parent  to  renew  the  child,  or  that  the 

/  child  can  be  renewed  by  any  agency  of  the  Spirit  less  immedi- 
ate, than  that  which  renews  the  parent  himself.  When  a  germ 
is  formed  on  the  stem  of  any  plant,  the  formative  instinct  of 
the  plant  may  be  said  in  one  view  to  produce  it ;  but  the  same 
solar  heat  which  quickens  the  plant,  must  quicken  also  the 
germ  and  sustain  the  .internal  action  of  growth,  by  a  common 
presence  in  both.  So  if  there  be  an  organic  power  of  character 
in  the  parent,  such  asthat  of  which  I  have  spoken,  it  is  not  a 
complete  power  in  itself,  but  only  such  a  power  as  demands 
the  realizing  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  both  in  the  parent 
and  the  child,  to  give  it  effect.'.  As  Paul  said,  "  I  have  begot- 
ten you  through  the  gospel,"  so  may  we  say  of  the  parent,  who 
having  a  living  gospel  enveloped  in  his  life,  brings  it  into  organic 
connection  with  the  soul  of  childhood.  But  the  declaration  ex- 
cludes the  necessity  of  a  divine  influence,  not  more  in  one  case 

i^than  in  the  other. 

Such  are  some  of  the  considerations  that  offer  themselves, 
viewing  our  subject  on  the  human  side,  or  as  it  appears  in  the 
light  of  human  evidence — all  concurring  to  produce  the  convic- 
tion, that  it  is  the  only  true  idea  of  Christian  education,  that 
the  child  is  to  grow  up  in  the  life  of  the  parent,  and  be  a  Chris- 
tian, in  principle,  from  his  earliest  years. 


DISCOURSE   II. 

EPHKSIANS  6  :  4.      BRING    THEM  up  IN  THE  NURTURE  AND  ADMONITION  or  THB 
LORD. 

WE  proceed  now  to  inquire — 

II.  How  far  God,  in  the  revelation  made  of  his  character  and 
will,  favors  the  view  of  Christian  nurture  already  vindicated 
by  arguments  and  evidences  of  an  inferior  nature  ?  And — 

1.  According  to  all  that  God  has  taught  us  concerning  his 
own  dispositions,  he  desires,  on  his  part,  that  children  should 
grow  up  in  piety,  as  earnestly  as  the  parent  can  desire  it ; 
nay,  as  much  more  earnestly,  as  he  hate's  sin  more  intensely, 
and  desires  good  with  less  mixture  of  qualification.  Good- 
ness, or  the  production  of  goodness,  is  the  supreme  end  of 
God,  and  therefore  we  know,  on  first  principles,  that  he  de- 
sires to  bestow  whatsoever  spiritual  grace  is  necessary  to 
the  moral  renovation  of  childhood,  and  will  do  it,  unless  some 
collateral  reasons  in  his  plan,  involving  the  extension  of  holy 
virtue,  require  him  to  withhold.  Thus  if  nothing  were  hung 
upon  parental  faithfulness  and  example,  if  the  child  were  not 
used,  in  some  degree  or  way,  as  an  argument,  to  hold  the  pa- 
tent to  a  life  of  Christian  diligence,  then  the  good  principle  in 
the  parent  might  lack  the  necessary  stimulus  to  bring  it  to 
maturity.  Or,  if  all  children  alike,  in  spite  of  the  evil  and  un- 
christian example  of  their  parents,  were  to  be  started  into  life 
as  spiritually  renewed,  then  wanting  in  their  future  life  as  pa- 
rents, one  of  the  strongest  motives  to  holy  living,  in  the  fact 
that  their  children  also  are  safe  as  regards  a  good  beginning, 
without  any  carefulness  in  them,  or  prayerfulness  in  their 
life ;  their  own  virtue  might  so  overgrow  itself  with  weeds, 


24  DISCOURSES    ON 

as  never  to  attain  to  a  sound  maturity.  JLet  it  be  enough  to 
know,  on  first  principles  in  the  character  of  God,  that  he  will 
so  dispense  his  spiritual  agency  to  you  and  to  your  children,  as 
to  produce,  considering  the  freedom  of  you  both,  the  best  meas- 
ure and  the  ripest  state  of  holy  virtue.  jAnd  how  far  short  is 
this  of  the  conclusion,  that  if  you  live  as  you  ought  and  may 
yourselves,  God  will  so  dispense  his  spirit  that  you  may  see 
your  children  grow  up  in  piety?  Jpbserve  too,  that  he  ex- 
pressly pledges  his  holy  Spirit  to  you,  as  one  of  his  first  gifts  ? 
and,  what  is  more,  even  commands  you  to  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit ;  and  considering  the  organic  relation  that  subsists  by 
his  own  appointment,  between  you  and  your  children,  how  far 
off  is  he,  in  this,  from  pledging  you  a  mercy  that  accrues  to 
their  benefit  ?  He  appoints  you  also  to  be  a  light  to  the  world 
and,  by  the  grace  he  pours  into  your  being,  prepares  you  to 
be;— how  much  more  a  light  to  minds  that  are  fed  by  simple 
nurture  from  your  own  ?  And  when  you  consider  how  fond 
he  is,  if  I  may  so  speak,  in  the  blessings  he  pours  on  the  good, 
of  gathering  their  children  with  them  in  the  eame  circle  of 
favor,  how  many  of  his  promises  in  all  ages,  tun — "  to  you  and 
to  your  children,"  what  better  assurance  can  you  reasonably 
ask,  to  fortify  your  confidence  of  whatever  spiritual  grace  may 
be  necessary  to  your  utmost  success  1 

2.  If  there  be  any  such  thing  as  Christian  nurture,  distin- 
guished from  that  which  is  not  Christian,  which  is  generally 
admitted,  and,  by  the  Scriptures  clearly  asserted,  then  is  it 
some  kind  of  nurture  which  God  appoints.  Does  it  then,  accord 
with  the  known  character  of  God,  to  appoint  a  scheme  of  edu- 
cation, the  only  proper  result  of  which  shall  be  that  children 
are  trained  up  under  it  in  sin  ?  It  would  not  be  more  absurd  to 
suppose  that  God  has  appointed  church  education,  to  produce  a 
first  crop  of  sin.  and  then  a  crop  of  holiness.  God  appoints 
nothing  of  which  sin  and  only  sin  is  to  be  the  proper  and  legiti- 
mate result,  whether  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter  time ;  least  of 
all  a  mode  of  training  which  is  to  produce  sin.  Holy  virtue  is 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  25 

the  aim  of  every  plan  God  adopts,  every  means  he  prescribes, 
and  we  have  no  right  to  look  only  for  sin,  in  that  which  he  has 
appointed  as  a  means  of  virtue.  We  cannot  do  it  understand- 
ingly,  without  great  impiety. 

3.  God  does  expressly  lay  it  upon  us  to  expect  that  our  chil- 
dren will  grow  up  in  piety,  under  the  parental  nurture,  and 
assumes  the  possibility  that  such  a  result  may  ordinarily  be 
realized.    "  Train  up  a  child" — how  1  for  future  conversion  ? — 
No,  "  but  in  the  way  he  should  go,  that  when  he  is  old  he  may 
not  depart  from  it."    If  it  be  said  that  this  relates  only  to  out- 
ward habits  of  virtue  and  vice,  not  to  spiritual  life,  the  Old 
Testament,  I  reply,  does  not  raise  that  distinction,  as  it  is  raised 
in  the  new.    It  puts  all  good  together,  all  evil  together,  and 
regards  a  child  trained  up  in  the  way  he  should  go,  as  going  in 
all  the  ways  and  fulfilling  all  the  ideas  of  virtue.    The  phrase, 
ology  of  the  New  Testament  carries  the  same  import.    "  Bring 
them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,"  a  form  ot 
expression,  which  indicates  the  existence  of  a  Divine  nurture, 
that  is  to  encompass  the  child  and  mold  him  unto    God;  so 
that  he  shall  be  brought  up,  as  it  were,  in  Him. 

4.  A  time  is  foretold,  as  our  churches  generally  believe,  when 
all  shall  know  God,  even  from  the  least  to  the  greatest;  that 
is,  shall  spiritually  know  him,  or  so  that  there  shall  be  no  need 
of  exhorting  one  another  to  know  him ;  for  intellectual  know- 
ledge is  not  carried  by  exhortation.    If  such  a  time  is  ever  to 
come,  then,  at  least,  children  are  to  grow  up  in  Christ  ;  can  it 
come  too  soon?    And  if  we  have  the  opinion  that  any  such 
thing  is  impossible,  either  we,  or  those  who  come  after  us  must 
get  rid  of  it.    A  principal  reason  why  the  great  expectations 
of  the  future,  that  we,  in  this  age  are  giving  out  so  confidently, 
seem  only  visionary  and  idle  dreams  to  many,  is  that  we  are 
perpetually  assuming  their  impossibility  ourselves.    Our  very 
theory  of  religion  is,  that  men  are  to  grow  up  in  evil,  and  be 
dragged  into  the  church  of  God  by  conquest.    The  world  is  to 

3 


26  DISCOURSES   ON 

lie  in  halves;  and  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  stretch  itself  side  by 
gide  with  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  making  sallies  into  it,  and 
taking  captive  those  who  are  sufficiently  hardened  and  bronzed 
in  guiltiness  to  be  converted.  Thus  we  assume  even  the  ab- 
surdity of  all  our  expectations  in  regard  to  the  possible  advance- 
ment of  human  society,  and  the  universal  prevalence  of  Chris- 
tian virtue.  And  thus  we  throw  an  air  of  extravagance  and 
unreason  over  all  we  do.  Whereas  there  is  a  sober  and  rational 
possibility,  that  human  society  should  be  universally  pervaded 
by  Christian  virtue.  The  Christian  scheme  has  a  scope  of 
intention,  and  instruments  and  powers  adequate  to  this, — it  de- 
scends upon  the  world  to  claim  all  souls  for  its  dominion, — all 
men  of  all  climes,  all  ages  from  childhood  to  the  grave.  It  is 
indeed,  a  plan  which  supposes  the  existence  of  sin,  and  sin  will 
be  in  the  world,  and  in  all  hearts  in  it,  as  long  as  the  world  or 
human  society  continues,  but  the  scheme  has  a  breadth  of 
conception,  and  has  powers  and  provisions  embodied  in  it,  which, 
apart  from  all  promises  and  predictions,  certify  us  of  a  day, 
when  it  will  reign  in  all  human  hearts,  and  all  that  live  shall 
live  in  Christ.  Let  us  either  renounce  any  such  confidence,  or 
show  by  a  thorough  consistency  in  our  religious  doctrines,  that 
we  hold  it  deliberately  and  manfully. 

5.  We  discover  in  the  Scriptures  that  the  organic  law  of 
tvhich  I  have  spoken,  is  distinctly  recognized,  and  that  charac- 
ter, in  children,  is  often  regarded  as,  in  some  very  important 
sense,  derivative  from  their  parents.  It  is  thus  that  "  sin  has 
passed  upon  all  men."  "  By  the  offence  of  one,  judgment  came 
upon  all."  Christian  faith  is  also  spoken  of  in  a  similar  way. 
«'  The  unfeigned  faith,  which  dwelt  first,  in  thy  grandmother 
Lois, "and  thy  mother  Eunice,  and,  1  am  persuaded  that  in  thee 
also."  Not  that  in  the  bold  and  naked  sense,  it  had  descended 
thus  through  three  generations.  But  the  apostle  conceives  a 
power,  in  the  good  life  of  these  mothers,  that  must  needs  trans- 
mit Borne  flavor  of  piety.  In  like  manner,  God  is  represented 


CHRISTIAN   NURTURE.  27 

as  "  keeping  covenant  and  mercy  with  them  that  love  him  and 
keep  his  commandments,  to  a  thousand  generations ;"  which,  if 
it  signifies  any  thing,  amounts  to  a  declaration  that  he  will 
spiritually  own  and  bless  every  succeeding  generation,  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  if  only  the  preceding  will  so  live  as  to  be  fit 
vehicles  of  his  blessing ;  for  it  is  not  any  covenant,  as  a  form  of 
mutual  contract,  which  carries  the  Divine  favor,  but  it  is  the 
loving  Him  rather,  and  keeping  His  commandments,  by  an  up- 
right, godly  life,  which  sets  the  parents  on  terms  of  friendship 
with  God,  and  secures  the  inhabitation  of  His  power. . 

Declarations  like  those  in  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  Ezekiel, 
"  the  son  shall  not  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  father," — "the  soul 
that  sinneth  it  shall  die," — are  hastily  applied  by  many,  not  to 
show  that  the  child  is  to  be  punished  only  for  his  own  sin, 
which  is  their  true  import,  but,  as  if  it  were  the  same  thing,  to 
disprove  the  fact  of  an  organic  connection,  by  which  children 
receive  a  character  from  their  parents.  Whereas  this  latter  ia 
a  truth  which  we  see  with  our  eyes,  and  one  that  is  constantly 
affirmed  in  the  Scriptures,  both  in  respect  to  bad  character 
and  to  good.  "  God  layeth  up  the  iniquity  of  the  wicked  for  his 
children," — "  Visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  lathers  upon  the 
children  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation."  By  which  we  are 
to  understand,  what  is  every  day  exhibited  in  actual  historic 
proof,  that  the  wickedness  of  parents  propagates  itself  in  the 
character  and  condition  of  their  children^and  that  it  ordinarily 
requires  three  or  four  generations  to  ripen  the  sad  harvest  of 
misery  and  debasement.  Again,  on  the  other  side,  "  he  hath 
blessed  thy  children  with  thee," — "  For  the  good  of  them  and 
their  children  after  them," — "  For  the  promise  is  to  you  and  to 
your  children."!  The  Scriptures  have  a  perpetual  habit,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  q£  associating  children  with  the  character  and 
destiny  of  their  parents.  In  this  respect,  they  maintain  a  mark- 
ed contrast  with  the  extreme  individualism  of  our  modern  phi- 
losophy. They  do  not  always  regard  the  individual  as  an  isola- 
ted unit,  but  they  often  look  upon  men  as  they  exist,  in  families 


28  DISCOURSES   ON 

and  races,  and  under  organic  laws.  -iSomething  has  undoubt- 
edly been  gained  to  modern  theology,  as  a  human  science,  by 
fixing  the  attention  strongly  upon  the  individual  man,  as  a  moral 
ageni,  immediately  related  to  God,  and  responsible  only  for  his 
own  actions ;  at  the  same  time  there  was  a  truth,  an  important 
truth,  underlying  the  old  doctrine  of  federal  headship  and 
original  or  imputed  sin,  though  strangely  misconceived,  which 
we  seem,  in  our  one-sided  speculations,  to  have  quite  lost  sight 
of.  And  how  can  we  ever  attain  to  any  right  conception  of 
organic  duties,  until  we  discover  the  reality  of  organic  powers 
and  relations  1  And  how  can  we  hope  to  set  ourselves  in  har- 
mony with  the  Scriptures,  in  regard  to  family  nurture,  or  house- 
hold baptism,  or  any  other  kindred  subject,  while  our  theories 
include,  or  overlook  precisely  that  which  is  the  basis  of  all  their 
teachings  and  appointments  ?  This  brings  me  to  my — 

Last  argument,  which  is  drawn  from  infant  or  household  bap- 
tism,— -a  rite  which  supposes  the  fact  of  an  organic  connection 
of  character  between  the  parent  and  the  child;  a  seal  of  faith 
in  the  parent,  applied  over  to  the  child,  on  the  ground  of  a  pre- 
sumption that  his  faith  is  wrapped  up  in  the  parent's  faith  ;  so 
that  he  is  accounted  a  believer  from  the  beginning.  We  must 
distinguish  here  between  a  fact  and  a  presumption  of  fact.  If 
you  look  upon  a  seed  of  wheat,  it  contains,  in  itself  presump- 
tively, a  thousand  generations  of  wheat,  though  by  reason  of 
some  fault  in  the  cultivation,  or  some  speck  of  diseased  matter 
in  itself,  it  may,  in  fact,  never  reproduce  at  all.  So  the  Christian 
parent  has,  in  his  character,  a  germ,  which  has  power,  pre- 
sumptively, to  produce  its  like  in  his  children,  though  by  reason 
of  some  bad  fault  in  itself,  or  possibly  some  outward  hindrance 
in  the  Church,  or  some  providence  of  death,  it  may  fail  to  do  so. 
Thus  it  is  that  infant  baptism  becomes  an  appropriate  rite.  It 
sees  the  child  in  the  parent,  counts  him  presumptively  a  be- 
liever, and  a  Christian,  and  with  the  parent,  baptizes  him  also. 
Furthermore  you  will  perceive  that  it  must  be  presumed,  either 
that  the  child  will  grow  up  a  believer,  or  that  he  will  not.  The 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE.  %$ 

Baptist  presumes  that  he  will  not,  and  therefore  declares  the 
rite  to  be  inappropriate.  God  presumes  that  he  will,  and  there- 
fore appoints  it.  The  Baptist  tells  the  child  that  nothing  but 
sin  can  be  expected  of  him ;  God  tells  him  that  for  his  parents' 
sakes,  whose  faith  he  is  to  follow,  he  has  written  his  own  name 
upon  him,  and  expects  him  to  grow  up  in  all  duty  and  piety. 

I  have  no  desire  to  press  the  passages  in  which  mention  is 
made  of  household  baptism  beyond  their  true  import.  When 
Paul -is  said  to  have  "baptized  the  household  of  Stephanas," 
our  Baptist  friends  reply  that  the  text  proves  nothing,  in  re- 
spect to  infant  baptism,  because  it  cannot  be  shown  that  there 
were  any  children  in  the  household ;  and  some,  who  practice 
infant  baptism  have  conceded  the  sufficiency  of  the  objection. 
But  the  power  of  this  proof  text  does  not  depend  in  the  least, 
on  the  fact  that  there  were  children  in  the  household  ol  Stepha- 
nas, but  simply  on  the  form  of  the  language.  Indeed,  it  has 
always  seemed  to  me  that  the  argument  for  infant  baptism  is 
rather  strengthened  than  weakened,  by  the  supposition  that 
there  were,  in  fact,  no  infants  or  children  in  this  household ; 
for  a  household  generally  contains  children,  and  a  term  so  in- 
clusive in  its  import,  could  never  come  into  use,  unless  it  was 
the  practice  for  baptism  to  go  by  households.  Under  a  practice 
like  that  of  our  Baptist  brethren,  what  preacher  would  ever 
be  heard  to  speak  in  this  general  inclusive  way,  of  having  bap- 
tized a  household  ?  In  the  case  of  the  jailor  too,  the  same 
reasoning  holds.  Here,  however,  our  Baptist  brethren  go  far- 
ther, endeavoring  to  show  positively,  from  the  language  used, 
that  there  were  no  infants  or  children  in  the  household ;  for 
when  it  is  said  that  the  jailor  "  rejoiced,  believing  in  God  with 
all  his  house,"  it  is  argued  that,  inasmuch  as  infant  children  are 
incapable  of  believing,  there  could  have  been  no  infants  in  the 
family.  Admitting  the  correctness  of  the  translation,  which 
some  have  questioned,  the  argument  seems  rather  plausible  as 
a  turn  of  logic,  than  just  and  convincing;  for,  if  we  consider 
3* 


30  DISCOURSES    ON 

the  more  decisive  position  held  in  that  age  by  the  heads  of  fam- 
ilies, and  how,  in  common  speech,  they  were  supposed  to  carry 
the  religion  of  the  family  with  them,  we  shall  be  convinced 
that  nothing  was  more  natural  than  the  very  language  here 
used.  It  was  taken  for  granted,  as  a  matter  of  common  under- 
standing, that,  in  a  change  of  religion,  the  children  went  with 
the  parents, — ifthey  became  Jews  that  their  children  would  be 
Jews,  if  Christian  believers  that  their  children  would  be  Chris- 
tians. Hence  all  the  terms  used,  in  reference  to  their  religion, 
took  the  most  inclusive  form.  If  one  believed  in  God,  he  be- 
lieved with  all  his  house, — the  change  he  suffered,  in  the  com- 
mon understanding  of  the  age,  carried  the  house  with  him ; 
and  it  occurred  to  no  one  to  question  the  literal  exactness  of 
such  like  inclusive  terms. 

It  has  been  a  fashion,  with  many  modern  critics,  to  surrender 
both  these  passages  as  proofs  of  infant  baptism,  and  they  cer- 
tainly do  not  prove  it,  in  just  the  way  in  which  many  have  used 
them  as  proof  texts.  But  if  any  one  will  seek  a  point  of  view, 
whence  he  may  be  able  to  give  a  natural  and  easy  interpreta- 
tion to  the  language  used,  or  if  he  will  ask,  on  the  simple  doc- 
trine of  chances,  what  chance  there  was  that  these  two  house- 
holds should  include  no  children,  and  moreover  what  chance 
that,  in  the  only  two  cases  of  household  baptism  mentioned  in 
the  scripture,  the  households  should  have  been  distinguished 
by  this  singularity,  he  will  be  as  little  likely  as  possible,  to  con- 
cede the  fact  that  infant  baptism  is  not  adequately  proved  by 
these  passages. 

But  the  true  idea  of  these  passages,  and  also  of  the  rite  itself, 
is  seen  most  evidently,  in  the  history  of  its  establishment  by 
Christ,  in  the  third  chapter  of  John.  The  Jewish  nation  re- 
garded other  nations  as  unclean.  Hence,  when  a  Gentile  fam- 
ily wished  to  become  Jewish  citizens,  they  were  baptized  in 
token  of  cleansing.  Then  they  were  said  to  be  re-born,  or  re- 
generated, so  as  to  be  accounted  true  descendants  of  Abraham. 


CHRISTIAN    NURTUHE.  31 

We  use  the  term  naturalize,  that  is,  to  make  natural  born,  in 
the  same  sense.  But  Christ  had  come  to  set  up  a  spiritual 
kingdom,  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  and  finding  all  men  aliens, 
and  spiritually  unclean,  he  applies  over  the  right  of  baptism, 
which  was  familiar  to  the  Jews  ("  art  thou  a  Master  in  Israel, 
and  knowest  not  these  things?")  giving  it  a  higher  sense. 
"  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  But  the  Gentile  proselyte  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  here  described, — here  is  the  point  of  the 
argument, — came  with  his  family.  They  were  all  baptized 
together,  young  and  old,  all  regenerated,  or  naturalized  to- 
gether ;  and  therefore  in  the  new  application  made  of  the  rite, 
to  signify  spiritual  cleansing  and  regeneration,  it  is  understood, 
of  course,  that  children  are  to  come  with  their  parents.  To 
have  excluded  them  would  have  been,  to  every  Jewish  mind, 
the  height  of  absurdity.  They  could  not  have  been  excluded, 
without  express  exception,  and  no  exception  was  made.  Some 
have  questioned  whether  proselyte  baptism  existed  at  this  early 
age ;  but  of  this,  the  third  chapter  of  John  is  itself  conclusive 
proof;  for  how  else  was  baptism  familiarly  known  to  the  Jews 
as  connected  with  regeneration ;  that  is,  civil  regeneration  ? 
There  is  always  an  historic  reason  for  religious  rites,  and  for 
usages  of  language,  and  you  will  find  it  impossible  to  suppose 
that  Christ  appointed  baptism,  and  set  the  rite  in  connection 
with  spiritual  regeneration,  by  any  mere  accident,  or  without 
some  historic  basis  answering  to  that  which  I  have  just  descri- 
bed. In  this  manner,  all  his  language,  in  the  interview  with 
Nicodemus,  becomes  natural  and  easy. 

It  follows  that  the  children  of  Christian  disciples,  being  bapti- 
zed with  their  parents,  as  the  children  of  Gentile  proselytes 
were  baptized  with  theirs,  would  be  taken  or  presumed  by  the 
church  to  be  spiritually  cleansed,  in  the  same  manner.  Ac- 
cordingly, just  as  the  children  of  Jews  were  accounted  Jews, 
and  not  as  unclean,  when  one  of  the  parents  was  a  Jew,  so  Paul 
tells  us,  that  in  the  church  of  God,  the  believing  party  sancti- 


32  DISCOURSES    ON 

fies  the  unbelieving,  "  else  were  your  children  unclean,  but  now 
are  they  holy ;"  showing  that  the  Jewish  analogies,  in  regard 
to  children,  were  in  fact  translated,  or  passed  over  to  the  church, 
and  adopted  there — a  translation  that  naturally  followed,  from 
the  re-application  of  proselyte  baptism. 

Then  passing  into  the  early  history  of  the  church,  we  hear 
Justin  Martyr,  saying, — "  there  are  some  of  us,  eighty  years 
old,  who  were  made  disciples  to  Christ  in  their  childhood," 
that  is,  in  the  age  of  the  apostles,  and  while  they  were  yet 
living ;  for  it  was  now  less  than  eighty  years  since  their  death. 
And  in  the  expression  "  made  disciples,"  taken  in  connection 
with  the  baptismal  formula,  "  Go  disciple  all  nations,  baptizing, 
&c."  we  see  that  he  alludes  to  baptism  ;  for  baptism  was  the 
rite  that  introduced  the  subject  into  the  Christian  school  as  a 
disciple  ;  and  what  so  natural,  as  that  the  children  of  disciples 
should  be  disciples  with  them  ? 

Then  again,  Ireneus,  who  lived  within  one  generation  of  the 
apostles,  gives  us  the  second  mention  of  this  rite  which  ap- 
pears in  history,  when  he  says,  "  Christ  came  to  save  all  per- 
sons through  himself;  all  I  say,  who  through  him  are  regener- 
ated unto  God ;  infants  and  little  ones,  and  children  and  youth, 
and  the  aged."  Which  phrase,  "  regenerated  unto  God,"  ap- 
plied to  parents  and  little  ones,  alludes  to  baptism,  showing  that 
a  notion  of  baptism,  as  connected  with  regeneration,  coincident 
with  that  which  we  found  in  the  third  chapter  of  John,  was  then 
cujrent  in  the  church. 

',  I  have  been  thus  full  upon  the  rite  of  baptism,  not  because 
that  is  my  subject,  but  because  the  rite  involves,  in  all  its 
grounds  and  reasons,  the  same  view  of  Christian  education, 
which  I  am  seeking  to  establish.  One  cannot  be  thoroughly 
understood  and  received  without  the  other.  And  it  is  precisely 
on  this  account,  that  we  have  so  great  difficulty  in  sustaining 
the  rite  of  infant  baptism.  It  ought  to  be  difficult  to  sustain 
any  rite,  after  the  sense  of  it  is  wholly  gone  from  us.  You  per- 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  33 

ceive  too,  in  this  exposition,  that  the  view  of  Christian  nurture, 
I  am  endeavoring  to  vindicate,  is  not  new,  but  is  older,  by  far, 
than  the  one  now  prevalent, — as  old  as  the  Christian  church, 
It  is  radically  one  with  the  ancient  doctrine  of  baptism  and  re- 
generation, advanced  by  Christ,  and  accepted  by  the  first  _j 
fathers. 

We  have  much  to  say  of  baptismal  regeneration  as  a  great 
error,  which  undoubtedly  it  is,  in  the  form  in  which  it  is  held ; 
but  it  is  only  a  less  huriful  error  that  some  of  us  hold  in  denying 
it.  The  distinction  between  our  doctrine  of  baptismal  regen- 
eration, and  the  ancient  scripture  view,  is  too  broad  and  palpa- 
ble to  be  mistaken.  According  to  the  modern  church  dogma, 
no  laith,  in  the  parents,  is  necessary  to  the  effect  of  the  rite. 
Sponsors  too  are  brought  in  between  all  parents  and  their  duty, 
to  assume  the  very  office  which  belongs  only  to  them.  And, 
what  is  worse,  the  child  is  said  to  be  actually  regenerated  by 
the  act  of  the  priest.  According  to  the  more  ancient  view,  or 
that  of  the  scriptures,  nothing  depends  upon  the  priest  or  min- 
ister, save  that  he  execute  the  rite  in  due  form.  The  regener- 
ation is  not  actual,  but  only  presumptive,  and  every  thing  de- 
pends upon  the  organic  law  of  character  pertaining  between 
the  parent  and  the  child,  the  church  and  the  child,  thus  upon 
duty  and  holy  living  and  gracious  example.  The  child  is  too"1 
young  to  choose  the  rite  for  himself,  but  the  parent,  having  him 
as  it  were  in  his  own  life,  is  allowed  the  confidence  that  his  own 
.faith  and  character  will  be  reproduced  in  the  child,  and  grow 
up  in  his  growth,  and  that  thus  the  propriety  of  the  rite  as  a 
seal  of  faith  will  not  be  violated.)  In  giving  us  this  rite,  on  the 
grounds  stated,  God  promises,  in  fact,  on  his  part,  to  dispense 
that  spiritual  grace  which  is  necessary  to  the  fulfillment  of  its 
import.  I^i  this  way  too  is  it  seen  that  the  Christian  economy 
has  a  place  for  all  ages  ;  for  it  would  be  singular,  if  after  all  we 
say  of  the  universality  of  God's  mercy  as  a  gift  to  the  human 
race,  it  could  yet  not  limber  itself  to  man,  so  as  to  adapt  a  place 


34  DISCOURSES    ON 

for  the  age  of  childhood,  but  must  leave  a  full  fourth  part  of 
the  race,  the  part  least  hardened  in  evil  and  tenderest  to  good 
unrecognized  and  unprovided  for,— gathering  a  flock  without 
lambs,  or,  I  should  rather  say,  gathering  a  flock  away  from  the 
lambs.  Such  is  not  the  spirit  of  Him  who  said,  "forbid  them 
not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Therefore  we 
bring  them  into  the  school  of  Christ,  and  the  pale  of  his  mercy 
with  us,  there  to  be  trained  up  in  the  holy  nurture  of  the  Lord. 
And  then  the  result  is  to  be  tested  afterwards,  or  at  an  advan- 
ced period  of  life,  by  trying  their  character  in  the  same  way  as 
the  character  of  all  Christians  is  tried;  for  many  are  baptized 
in  adult  age,  who  truly  do  not  believe,  as  is  afterwards  discov- 
ered. And  yet  our  Baptist  brethren  never  re-baptize  them, 
notwithstanding  all  they  say  of  faith  as  the  necessary  condition 
ofbaptism. 

But  there  are  two  objections  to  this  view  of  Christian  nur- 
ture, which  may  occur  to  some  of  you,  and  may  even  suffice  to 
break  the  force  of  my  argument,  if  they  are  not  removed. 

1.  A  theoretical  objection,  that  it  leaves  no  room  for  the  sove- 
reignty of  God,  in  appointing  the  moral  character  of  men  and 
families.  Thus  it  is  declared  that  "  all  are  not  Israel  who  are 
of  Israel,"  and  that  God,  before  the  children  Jacob  and  Esau, 
had  done  either  good  or  evil,  professed  his  love  to  one,  and  his 
rejection  of  the  other.  But  the  wonder  is,  in  this  case  of  Re- 
becca and  her  children,  that  such  a  mother  did  not  ruin  them 
both.  A  partial  mother,  scorning  one  child,  teaching  the  other 
to  lie  and  trick  his  blind  father  and  extort  from  a  starving  brother 
his  birthright  honor,  cannot  be  said  to  furnish  a  very  good  test 
of  the  power  of  Christian  education.  But  show  me  the  case, 
where  the  whole  conduct  of  the  parents  has  been  such  as  it 
should  be  to  produce  the  best  effects,  and  where  the  sovereignty 
of  God  has  appointed  the  ruin  of  the  children,  whether  all,  or 
any  one  of  them.  The  sovereignty  of  God  has  always  a  rela- 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  35 

tion  to  means,  and  we  are  not  authorized  to  think  of  it,  in  any 
case,  as  separated  from  means. 

2.  An  objection  from  observation,— asking  why  it  is,  if  our~\ 
doctrine  be  true,  that  many  persons,  remarkable  for  their  piety. 

'        J^  -       / 

have  yet  been  so  unfortunate  in  their  children  ?  Because,  I 
answer,  many  persons,  remarkable  for  their  piety,  are  yet  very 
disagreeable  persons,  and  that  too,  by  reason  of  some  very 
marked  defect  in  their  religious  character.  They  display  just 
that  spirit,  and  act  in  just  that  manner,  which  is  likely  to  make 
religion  odious, — the  more  odious  the  more  urgently  they  com- 
mend it.  Sometimes  they  appear  well  to  the  world  one  remove 
distant  from  them,  they  shine  well  in  their  written  biography, 
but  one  living  in  their  family  will  know  what  others  do  not ;  and 
if  their  children  turn  out  badly,  will  never  he  at  a  loss  for  the 
reason.  Many  persons  too  have  such  defective  views  of  the 
manner  of  teaching  appropriate  to  early  childhood,  that  they 
really  discourage  their  children.  "  Fathers  provoke  not  your 
children  to  anger,"  says  one,  "  lest  they  be  discouraged  ;"  im- 
plying that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  encouraging,  and  such  a 
thing  as  discouraging  good  principle  and  piety  in  a  child.  And 
there  are  other  ways  of  discouraging  children  besides  provoking 
them  to  an  angry  and  wounded  feeling  by  harsh  treatment. 

I  once  took  up  a  book,  from  a  Sabbath  school  library ,  one 
problem  of  which  was  to  teach  a  child  that  he  wants  a  new 
heart.  A  lovely  boy  (for  it  was  a  narrative)  was  called  every 
day,  to  resolve  that  he  would  do  no  wrong  that  day,  a  task 
which  he  undertook  most  cheerfully,  at  first,  and  even  with  a 
show  of  delight.  But,  before  the  sun  went  down,  he  was  sure 
to  fall  into  some  ill-temper  or  be  overtaken  by  some  infirmity. 
Whereupon,  the  conclusion  was  immediately  sprung  upon  him 
that  he  wanted  a  new  heart.  We  are  even  amazed  that  any 
teacher  of  ordinary  intelligence  should  not  once  have  imagined 
how  she  herself,  or  how  the  holiest  Christian  living  would  fare 
under  such  kind  of  regimen ;  how  certain  to  discover  every  day , 


36  DISCOURSES    ON 

and  probably  some  hours  before  sunset,  that  she  too  wanted  a 
new  heart  ?  And  the  practical  cruelty  of  the  experiment  is  yet 
more  to  be  deplored,  than  its  want  of  consideration.  Had  the 
problem  been  how  to  discourage  most  effectually  every  ingen- 
uous struggle  of  childhood,  no  readier  or  surer  method  could 
have  been  devised. 

Simply  to  tell  a  child,  as  he  just  begins  to  make  acquaintance 
with  words,  that  he  "  must  have  a  new  heart,  before  he  can  be 
good,"  is  to  inflict  a  double  discouragement.  First,  he  cannot 
guess  what  this  technical  phraseology  means,  and  thus  he  takes 
up  the  impression  that  he  can  do,  or  think  nothing  right,  till 
he  is  able  to  comprehend  what  is  above  his  age— why  then 
should  he  make  the  endeavor  ?  Secondly,  he  is  told  that  he 
must  have  a  new  heart  before  he  can  be  good,  not  that  he  may 
hope  to  exercise  a  renewed  spirit,  in  the  endeavor  to  be  good — 
why  then  attempt  what  must  be  worthless,  till  something  pre- 
vious befalls  him  ?  Discouraged  thus  on  every  side,  his  tender 
soul  turns  hither  and  thither,  in  hopeless  despair,  and  finally 
he  consents  to  be  what  he  must — a  sinner  against  God  and 
that  only.  Well  is  it,  under  such  a  process,  wearing  down  his 
childish  soul  into  soreness  and  despair  of  good,  sealing  up  his 
nature  in  silence  and  cessation  as  regards  all  right  endeavors, 
and  compelling  him  to  turn  his  feelings  into  other  channels, 
where  he  shall  find  his  good  in  evil — well  is  it,  I  say,  if  he  has 
not  contracted  a  dislike  to  the  very  subject  of  religion,  as  invet- 
erate as  the  subject  is  impossible.  Many  teach  in  this  way,  no 
doubt,  with  the  best  intentions  imaginable,  their  design  is  only 
to  be  faithful,  and  sometimes  they  appear  even  to  think  that  the 
more  they  discourage  their  children  the  better  and  more  faith- 
ful they  are.  But  the  mistake,  if  not  cruelly  meant,  is  certainly 
most  cruel  in  the  experience,  and  it  is  just  this  mistake,  I  am 
confident,  which  accounts  for  a  large  share  of  the  unhappy  fail- 
ures made  by  Christian  parents,  in  the  training  of  their  chil- 
dren. Rather  should  they  begin  with  a  kind  of  teaching  suited 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  37 

to  the  age  of  the  child.  First  of  all,  they  should  rather  seek  to 
teach  a  feeling  than  a  doctrine,  to  bathe  the  child  in  their  own 
feeling  of  love  to  God,  and  dependence  on  him,  and  contrition 
for  wrong  before  him,  bearing  up  their  child's  heart  in  their 
own,  not  fearing  to  encourage  every  good  motion  they  can  call 
into  exercise ;  to  make  what  is  good,  happy  and  attractive ;  what 
is  wrong,  odious  and  hateful.  Then  as  the  understanding  ad- 
vances, give  it  food  suited  to  its  capacity,  opening  upon  it, 
gradually,  the  more  difficult  views  of  Christian  doctrine  and 
experience. 

Sometimes  Christian  parents  fail  of  success  in  the  religious 
training  of  their  children,  because  the  church  counteracts  their 
effort  and  example.  The  church  makes  a  bad  atmosphere 
about  the  house  and  the  poison  comes  in  at  the  doors  and  win- 
dows. It  is  rent  by  divisions,  burnt  up  by  fanaticism,  frozen  by 
the  chill  of  a  worldly  spirit,  petrified  in  a  rigid  and  dead  ortho- 
doxy. It  makes  no  element  of  genial  warmth  and  love  about 
the  child,  according  to  the  intention  of  Christ  in  its  appoint- 
ment, but  gives  to  religion,  rather,  a  forbidding  aspect,  and 
thus,  instead  of  assisting  the  parent,  becomes  one  of  the  worst 
impediments  to  his  success.  What  kind  of  element  the  world 
makes  about  the  child  is  of  little  consequence ;  for  here  there 
is  no  pretence  of  piety.  But  when  the  school  of  Christ  itself 
becomes  an  element  of  sin  and  death,  the  child's  baptism  be- 
comes as  great  a  fiction  as  the  church  itself,  and  the  arrange- 
ments of  divine  mercy  fail  of  their  intended  power.  There  are 
in  short,  too  many  ways  of  accounting  for  the  failure  of  success, 
in  the  family  training  of  tnose  who  are  remarkable  for  their 
piety,  without  being  led  to  doubt  the  correctness  of  my  argu- 
ment in  these  discourses. 

To  sum  up  all,  we  conclude,  not  that  every  child  can  cer- 
tainly be  made  to  grow  up  in  Christian  piety — nothing  is  gained 
by  asserting  so  much,  and  perhaps  I  could  not  prove  it  to  be 
true,  neither  can  any  one  prove  the  contrary— I  merely  show 
4 


38  DISCOURSES    ON 

that  this  is  the  true  idea  and  aim  of  Christian  nurture  as  a  nur- 
ture of  the  Lord.  It  is  presumtively  true  that  such  a  result 
can  be  realized,  just  as  it  is  presumptively  true  that  a  school 
will  forward  the  pupils  in  knowledge,  though  possibly  some- 
times it  may  fail  to  do  it.  And,  without  such  a  presumption, 
no  parent  can  do  his  duty  and  fill  his  office  well,  any  more  than 
it  is  possible  to  make  a  good  school,  in  the  expectation  that  the 
scholars  will  learn  something  five  or  ten  years  hence  anil  not 
before- 

To  give  this  subject  its  practical  effect,  let  me  urge  it — 
1.  Upon  the  careful  attention  of  those  who  neglect,  or  de- 
cline, offering  their  children  in  baptism.  Some  of  you  are  sim- 
ply indifferent  to  this  duty,  not  seeing  wThat  good  it  can  do  to 
baptize  a  child ;  others  have  positive  theological  objections  to 
it.  With  the  former  class  I  certainly  agree,  so  far  as  to  admit 
that  baptism,  as  an  operation,  can  do  no  good  to  your  child  ; 
but,  if  it  has  no  importance  in  what  it  operates,  it  has  the 
greatest  importance  in  what  it  signifies;  and,  what  is  more  to 
be  deplored  by  you,  the  withholding  it  signifies  as  much,  viz  : 
that  you  yourselves  have  no  sense  of  the  relation  that  subsists 
between  your  character  and  that  of  your  child,  and  as  little  of 
the  mercy  that  Christ  intends  for  your  child,  by  including  him 
with  you  in  his  fold,  to  grow  up  there  by  your  side  in  the  same 
common  hopes.  Had  you  any  just  sense  of  these  things,  you 
would  look  upon  the  baptism  of  your  child  as  a  rite  of  as  great 
importance  and  spiritual  propriety  as  your  own ;  for  in  neither 
case,  has  the  form  any  value  beyond  what  it  signifies.  The 
other  class  among  you  suffer  the  same  defect ;  for  it  is  my  set- 
tled conviction  that  no  man  ever  objected  to  infant  baptism, 
who  had  not  at  the  bottom  of  his  objections,  false  views  of 
Christian  education— who  did  not  hold  a  notion  of  individualism, 
in  regard  to  Christian  character  in  childhood,  which  is  justified, 
neither  by  observation  nor  by  scripture.  It  is  the  prevalence 
of  false  views,  on  this  subject,  which  creates  so  great  difficulty 


CHRISTIAN     NURTURE.  39 

in  sustaining  infant  baptism  in  our  churches.  If  children  are  to 
grow  up  in  sin  to  be  converted  when  they  come  to  the  age  of 
maturity,  if  this  is  the  only  aim  and  expectation  of  family  nur- 
ture, there  really  is  no  meaning  or  dignity  whatever  in  the  rite. 
They  are  even  baptized  unto  sin,  and  every  propriety  of  the 
rite  as  a  seal  of  faith  is  violated.  And  it  is  the  feeling  of  this 
impropriety,  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  your  objections.  Re- 
turning to  the  old  scripture  doctrine  of  an  organic  law,  connect- 
ing the  child  morally  with  the  parents,  so  that  he  is,  as  it  were, 
.included  in  them,  to  grew  up  in  their  life ;  perceiving  then  that 
a  child  is  a  kind  of  rudimental  being,  coming  up  gradually  into 
a  separate  and  complete  individuality,  having  the  parental  life 
extended  to  him,  first,  with  an  almost  absolutely  controlling 
power,  then  less  and  less,  till  he  takes,  at  length,  the  helm  of 
his  own  spirit — every  difficulty  that  you  now  feel  vanishes,  and 
the  rite  of  infant  baptism  becomes  one  of  the  greatest  beauty 
and  perfectly  coincident  with  the  spirit  and  the  rules  of  adult 
baptism.  The  very  command,  "  believe  and  be  baptized,"  of 
which  so  much  is  made,  is  exactly  met  and  with  no  modifica- 
tions, save  what  are  necessary  to  suit  the  peculiar  state  and 
age  of  childhood :  for  the  child,  being  included  as  it  were  in  the 
parental  life,  is  accounted  presumptively  one  with  the  parents, 
and  sealed  with  the  seal  of  their  faith.  And  it  would  certainly 
be  very  singular,  if  Christ  Jesus,  in  a  scheme  of  mercy  for  the 
world,  had  found  no  place  for  infants  and  little  children :  more 
singular  still  if  he  had  given  them  the  place  of  adults ;  and 
worse  than  singular,  if  he  had  appointed  them  to  years  of  sin 
as  the  necessary  preparation  for  his  mercy.  But  if  you  see  him 
counting  them  one  with  you,  bringing  them  tenderly  into  his  fold 
with  you,  there  to  grow  up  in  him,  you  will  not  doubt  that  he  has 
given  them  a  place  exactly  and  beautifully  suited  to  them.  And 
is  it  for  you  to  withhold  them  from  that  place  ?  Is  it  worthy  of 
your  tenderness,  as  a  Christian  parent,  to  leave  them  outside 
of  the  fold,  Avhen  the  gate  is  open,  only  taking  care  to  go  in 


40  DISCOURSES    ON 

yourself?  I  will  not  accuse  you  of  intended  wrong,  but  I 
am  quite  sure  your  thoughts  are  not  as  God's  thoughts,  and  I 
ask  you  to  study  this  question  again,  and  more  deeply.  You 
are  giving  your  children  as  they  grow  up,  impressions  that  will 
assuredly  be  very  injurious  to  them,  and  robbing  them  of  im- 
pressions that  would  have  great  power  and  value  to  their  minds. 
What  can  be  worse,  what  can  make  them  aliens  more  sensibly 
from  Christ's  sympathies,  what  can  more  effectually  -discour- 
age and  chill  them  to  all  thought  of  a  good  life,  than  to  make 
them  feel  that  Christ  has  no  place  for  them,  till  their  sins  are 
ripe,  and  they  are  capable  of  a  grace  that  is  now  above  their 
years?  What  more  persuasive,  than  to  know  that  he  has 
taken  them  into  his  school  already,  to  grow  up  round  him  as 
disciples.  And  if  God  should  call  you  to  himself,  what  will 
draw  upon  their  hearts  more  tenderly,  than  to  remember  that 
the  lather  and  mother  whose  name  they  revere,  brought  them 
believingly  in  with  themselves,  to  be  owned  in  that  general  as- 
sembly of  the  just  which  occupies  both  worlds,  and  become  par- 
takers with  them  there,  in  the  grace  which  is  now  their  song- 
You  rob  yourselves  too  of  an  influence  which  is  necessary  to  a 
right  fulfillment  of  your  duty.  Their  character,  you  say,  is 
their  own,  let  them  believe  for  themselves  and  be  baptized 
when  they  will.  You  have  never  the  same  genial  feeling  that 
you  would,  if  you  regarded  them  as  morally  linked  to  your  cha- 
racter and  drawing  from  you  the  mold  of  their  being.  You  are 
not  kept  in  the  same  state  of  carefulness  and  spiritual  tender- 
ness. No  matter  if  you  are  cold  to  them,  at  times,  and  do  not 
always  live  Christ  in  the  house,  they  are  growing  up  to  be  con- 
verted, and  almost  any  thing  is  good  enough  for  conversion ! 
Christ  himself,  too,  has  no  such  relation  to  you,  in  your 
family  as  to  make  your  piety  a  domestic  spirit.  He  has  not 
gathered  your  children  round  you,  as  a  flock  of  young  disciples, 
pouring  all  his  tenderness  into  your  family  ties  to  make  them 
vehicles  of  mercy  and  blessing.  Once  more  I  ask  you  to  con- 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  41 

sider  whether  God  is  not  better  to  you  than  you  yourselves 
have  thought,  and  whether,  in  withholding  your  children  from 
God,,youare  not  like  to  fall  as  far  short  ol'your  duty,  as  you  do 
of  the  privilege  offered  you, 

2.  What  motives  are  laid  upon  all  Christian  parents,  by  the 
doctrine  I  have  established,  to  make  the  first  article  of  family 
discipline  a  constant  and  careful  djiscinline^of  themselves.  I 
would  not  undervalue  a  strong  and  decided  government  in 
families.  No  family  can  be  rightly  trained  without  it.  But 
there  is  a  kind  of  virtue,  my  brethren,  which  is  not  in  the  rod, 
the  virtue,  I  mean,  of  a  truly  good  and  sanctified  life.  And  a 
reign  of  brute  force  is  much  more  easily  maintained,  than  a 
reign  whose  power  is  righteousness  and  love.  There  are  too, 
I  must  warn  you,  many  who  talk  much  of  the  rod  as  the  ortho- 
dox symbol  of  parental  duty,  but  who  might  really  as  well  be 
heathens  as  Christians ;  who  only  storm  about  their  house 
with  heathenish  ferocity,  who  lecture,  and  threaten,  and  casti- 
gate, and  bruise,  and  call  this  family  government.  They  even 
dare  to  speak  of  this  as  the  nurture  of  the  Lord.  So  much 
easier  is  it  to  be  violent  than  to  be  holy,  that  they  substitute 
force  for  goodness  and  grace,  -and  are  wholly  unconscious  of 
the  imposture.  It  is  friglrful  to  think  how  they  batter  and 
bruise  the  delicate,  tender  souls  of  their  children,  extinguish- 
ing in  them  what  they  ought  to  cultivate,  crushing  that  sensi- 
bility which  is  the  hope  of  their  being,  and  all  in  the  sacred 
name  of  Christ  Jesus.  By  no  such  summary  process  can  you 
dispatch  your  duties  to  your  children.  You  are  not  to  be  a 
savage  to  them,  but  a  father,  and  a  Christian.  Your  real  aim 
and  study  must  be  to  infuse  into  them  a  new  life,  and,  to  this 
end,  the  Life  of  God  must  perpetually  reign  in  you.  Gathered 
round  you  as  a  family,  they  are  all  to  be  so  many  motives, 
strong  as  the  love  you  bear  them,  to  make  you  Christlike  in 
your  spirit.  It  must  be  seen  and  felt  with  them  that  religion  is 

a  first  thing  with  you.  And  it  must  be  first,  not  in  words  and  talk, 
4* 


42  DISCOURSES    ON 

but  visibly  first  in  your  love— that  which  fixes  your  aims,  feeds 
your  enjoyments,  sanctifies  your  pleasures,  supports  your  trials, 
satisfies  your  wants,  contents  your  ambition,  beautifies  and 
blesses  your  character.  No  mock  -piety,  no  sanctimony  of 
phrase,  or  longitude  of  face  on  Sundays  will  suffice.  You  must 
live  in  the  light  of  God  and  hold  such  a  spirit  in  exercise,  as 
you  wish  to  see  translated  into  your  children.  You  must  take 
them  into  your  feelings,  as  a  loving  and  joyous  element,  and 
beget,  if  by  the  grace  of  God  you  may,  the  spirit  of  your  own 
heart  in  theirs.  This  is  Christian  education,  the  nurture  of  the 
Lord.  Ah,  how  dismal  is  the  contrast  of  a  half-wor  Idly,  carnal 
piety,  proposing  money  as  the  good  thing  of  life,  stimulating 
ambition  for  place  and  show,  provoking  ill-nature  by  petulance 
and  falsehood,  praying  to  save  the  rule  of  family  worship,  hav- 
ing now  and  then  a  religious  fit,  and,  when  it  is  on,  weeping 
and  exhorting  the  family  to  undo  all  that  the  life  has  taught 
them  to  do,  and  then,  when  the  passions  have  burnt  out  their 
fire,  dropping  down  again  to  sleep  in  the  cinders,  only  hoping 
still  that  the  family  will  sometime  be  converted !  When  shall 
we  discover  that  families  ought  to  be  ruined  by  such  training  as 
this'?  When  shall  we  turn  ourselves  wholly  to  God,  and  look- 
ing on  our  children  as  one  with  us  and  drawing  their  character 
from  us,  make  them  arguments  to  duty  and  constancy — duty 
and  constancy  not  as  a  burden,  but,  since  they  are  enforced  by 
motives  so  dear,  our  pleasure  and  delight.  For  these  ties  and 
duties  exist  not  for  the  religious  good  of  our  children  only,  but 
quite  as  much  for  our  own.  And  God,  who  understands  us  well, 
has  appointed  them  to  keep  us  in  a  perpetual  frame  of  love ;  for 
BO  ready  is  our  bad  nature  to  kindle  with  our  good,  and  burn 
with  it,  that  what  we  call  our  piety  is,  otherwise,  in  constant 
danger  of  degenerating  into  a  fiery,  censorious,  unmerciful,  and 
intolerant  spirit.  Hence  it  is  that  monks  have  been  so  prone  to 
persecution.  Not  dwelling  with  children  as  the  objects  of  affec- 
tion, having  their  hearts  softened  by  no  family  love,  their  life 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  43 

identified  with  no  objects  that  excite  gentleness,  their  nature 
hardens  into  a  Christian  abstraction,  and  blood  and  doctrine 
go  together.  Therefore  God  hath  set  Israel  in  families,  that 
the  argument  to  duty  may  come  upon  the  gentle  side  of  your 
nature,  and  fall,  as  a  baptism,  on  the  head  of  your  natural 
affections.  Your  character  is  to  be  a  parent  character,  in- 
folding lovingly  the  spirits  of  your  children,  as  birds  gathered 
in  the  nest,  there  to  be  sheltered,  and  fed,  and  got  ready  for  the 
flight.  Every  hour  is  to  be  an  hour  of  duty,  every  look  and 
smile,  every  reproof  and  care,  an  effusion  of  Christian  love.  For 
it  is  the  very  beauty  of  the  work  you  have  to  do  that  you  are 
to  cherish  and  encourage  good,  and  live  a  better  life  into  the 
spirits  of  your  children. 

3.  It  is  to  be  deeply  considered,  in  connection  with  this  view 
of  family  nurture,  whether  it  does  not  meet  many  of  the  deficien- 
cies we  deplore  in  the  Christiaiysharacter  of  our  times,  and 
the  present  state  of  our  churches!  We  have  been  expecting  to 
thrive  too  much  by  conquest,  and  too  little  by  growth.  \  I  desire 
to  speak  with  all  caution  of  what  are  very  unfortunately  called 
revivals  of  religion;  for,  apart  from  the  name,  which  is  modern, 
and  from  certain  crudities  and  excesses  that  go  with  it,  which 
name,  crudities  and  excesses  are  wholly  adventitious  as  regards 
the  substantial  merits  of  such  scenes, — apart  from  these,  I  say, 
there  is  abundant  reason  to  believe  that  God's  spiritual  econo- 
my includes  varieties  of  exercise,  answering,  in  all  important 
respects,  to  thase  visitations  of  mercy,  so  much  coveted  in  our 
churches.  They  are  needed.  \  A  perfectly  uniform  demonstra- 
tion in  religion  is  not,  possible  or  desirable.  Nothing  is  thus 
uniform  but  death,  pur  exercise  varies  every  year  and  day 
from  childhood  onward.  Society  is  going  through  new  modes 
of  exercise  in  the  same  manner,  excited  by  new  subjects,  run- 
ning into  new  types  of  feeling,  and  struggling  with  new  com- 
binations of  thought.  Quite  as  necessary  is  it  that  all  holy 
principle  should  have  a  varied  exercise,  now  in  one  duty,  now 


44  DISCOURSES   ON 

in  another;  now  in  public  aims  and  efforts,  now  in  bosom  strug- 
gles ;  now  in  social  methods,  now  in  those  which  are  solitary 
and  private ;  now  in  high  emotion,  now  in  deliberative  thought 
and  study.  Accordingly  the  Christian  church  began  with  a 
scene  of  extraordinary  social  demonstration,  and  the  like,  in 
one  form  or  another,  may  be  traced  in  every  period  of  its  histo- 
ry since  that  day.  But  the  difficulty  is  with  us  that  we  idolize 
such  scenes  and  make  them  the  whole  of  our  religion.  We 
assume  that  nothing  good  is  doing,  or  can  be  done  at  any  other 
time.  And  what  is  even  worse,  we  often  look  upon  these 
scenes,  and  desire  them,  rather  as  scenes  of  victory,  than  of 
piety.  Tihey  are  the  harvest  times  of  conversion,  and  conver- 
sion is  too  nearly  every  thing  with  us.  'In  particular,  we  see 
no  way  to  gather  in  disciples,  save  by  means  of  certain  marked 
experiences,  developed  in  such  scenes,  in  adult  years.  Our 
very  children  can  possibly  come  to  no  good,  save  in  this  way. 
Instrumentalities  are  invented  to  compass  our  object,  that  are 
only  mechanical,  and  the  hope  of  mere  present  effect  is  suppo- 
sed to  justify  them.  Present  effect,  in  the  view  of  many,  justi- 
fies any  thing  and  every  thing.  We  strain  every  nerve  of  mo- 
tion, exhaust  every  capacity  of  endurance,  and  push  on  till  na- 
ture sinks  in  exhaustion.  We  preach  too  much,  and  live 
Christ  too  little.  We  do  many  things,  which,  in  a  cooler  mood, 
are  seen  to  hurt  the  dignity  of  religion,  and  which  somewhat 
shame  and  sicken  ourselves.  Hence  the  present  state  of  reli- 
gion in  our  country.  We  have  worked  a  vein  till  it  has  run 
out.  The  churches  are  exhausted.  There  is  little  to  attract 
them,  when  they  look  upon  the  renewal  of  scenes  through 
which  many  of  them  have  passed.  They  look  about  them, 
with  a  sigh,  to  ask  if  possibly  there  is  no  better  way,  and  some 
are  ready  to  find  that  better  way,  in  a  change  of  their  religion. 
Nothing  different  from  this  ought  to  have  been  expected.  No 
nation  can  long  thrive  by  a  spirit  of  conquest ;  no  more  can  a 
church.  There  must  be  an  internal  growth,  that  is  made  by 


CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  45 

holy  industry,  in  the  common  walks  ot  life  and  duty.  Let  us 
turn  now,  not  away  from  revivals  of  religion,  certainly  not 
away  from  the  conviction  that  God  will  bring  upon  the  church- 
es tides  of  spiritual  exercise,  and  vary  his  divine  culture  by 
times  and  seasons  suited  to  their  advancement ;  but  let  us  turn 
to  inquire  whether  there  is  not  a  fund  of  increase  in  the  very 
bosom  of  the  church  itself.  Let  us  try  if  we  may  not  train  up 
our  children  in  the  way  that  they  should  go.  Simply  this,  if 
we  can  do  it,  will  make  the  church  multiply  her  numbers  many 
fold  more  rapidly  than  now,  with  the  advantage  that  many 
more  will  be  gained  from  without  than  now.  For  she  will 
cease  to  hold  a  mere  piety  of  occasions,  a  piety  whose  chief 
use  is  to  get  up  occasions ;  she  will  follow  a  gentler  and  more 
constant  method,  as  her  duty  is  more  constant  and  blends  with 
the  very  life  of  her  natural  affections.  Her  piety  will  be  of  a 
more  even  and  genial  quality,  and  will  be  more  respected.  She 
will  not  strive  and  cry,  but  she  will  live.  The  school  of  John 
the  Baptist  will  be  succeeded  by  the  school  of  Christ,  as  a  dew 
comes  after  a  fire.  Families  will  not  be  a  temptation  to  you, 
half  the  time  hurrying  you  on  to  get  money,  and  prepare  a 
show,  and  the  other  half,  a  motive  to  repentance  and  shame, 
and  profitless  exhortation ;  but,  all  the  time,  an  argument  for 
Christian  love  and  holy  living.  Then  also  the  piety  of  the 
coming  age  will  be  deeper  and  more  akin  to  habit  than  yours, 
because  it  begun  earlier.  It  will  have  more  of  an  air  of  natu- 
ralness and  will  be  less  a  work  of  will.  A  generation  will  come 
forward,  who  will  have  been  educated  to  all  good  undertakings 
and  enterprises,  ardent  without  fanaticism,  powerful  without 
machinery.  Not  born  so  generally,  in  a  storm,  and  brought  to 
Christ  by  an  abrupt  transition,  the  latter  portion  of  life  will  not 
have  an  unequal  war  to  maintain  with  the  beginning,  but  life 
will  be  more  nearly  one,  and  in  harmony  with  itself.  Is  not 
this  a  result  to  be  desired?  Could  we  tell  our  American 
churches  at  this  moment,  what  they  want,  should  we  not  tell 
them  this?  Neither,  if  God,  as  many  fear,  is  about  ta  bring 


46  DISCOURSES  ox 

upon  his  church  a  day  of  wrath  and  stormy  conflict,  let  any 
one  suspect  that  such  a  kind  of  piety  will  want  vigor  and  nerve, 
to  withstand  the  fiery  assaults  anticipated.  See  what  turn  the 
mind  of  our  apostle  took,  when  he  was  arming  his  disciples  for 
the  great  conflict  of  their  age.  Children  obey  your  parents, — 
Fathers  provoke  not  your  children, — Servants  be  obedient  to 
your  masters, — Masters  forbear  threatening, — Finally,  to  in- 
clude all,  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God.  As  if  the  first 
thought,  in  arming  the  church  for  great  trials  and  stout  victo. 
ries,  was  to  fill  common  life  and  the  relations  of  the  house  with 
a  Christian  spirit.  There  is  no  truer  truth,  or  more  sublime. 
Religion  never  thoroughly  penetrates  life,  till  it  becomes  domes- 
tic. Like  that  patriotic  fire,  which  makes  a  nation  invincible, 
it  never  burns  with  inextinguishable  devotion,  till  it  burns  at 
the  hearth. 

4.  Parents  who  are  not  religious  in  their  character,  have 
reason,  in  our  subject,  seriously  to  consider  what  effect  they 
are  producing,  and  likely  to  produce  in  their  children.  Proba- 
bly you  do  not  wish  them  to  be  irreligious,  few  parents  have 
the  hardihood  or  indiscretion  to  desire  that  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  salutary  restraints  of  religion  should  be  removed  from  their 
children.  Possibly  you  exert  yourselves,  in  a  degree,  to  give 
them  religious  counsel  and  instruction.  But,  alas !  how  diffi- 
cult is  it  for  you  to  convince  them,  by  words,  of  the  value  of 
what  you  practically  reject  yourselves.  Have  I  not  shown 
you  that  they  are  set  in  organic  connection  with  you,  to  draw 
their  spirit  and  principles  and  character  from  yours  ?  What 
then  are  they  daily  deriving  from  you?  but  that  which  you 
yourselves  reveal,  in  your  prayerless  house,  and  at  your  thank- 
less table  ?  Is  it  a  spirit  ofduty  and  Christian  love,  a  faith  that 
has  its  home  and  rest  in  other  worlds,  or  is  it  the  carnal  spirit 
of  gain,  indifference  to  God,  deadness  to  Christ  and  love  of  the 
world,  pride,  ambition,  all  that  is  earthly,  nothing  that  is  heav- 
enly ?  Do  not  imagine  that  you  have  done  corrupting  them, 
when  they  are  born.  Their  character  is  yet  to  be  born,  and,  in 


CHRISTIAN   NURTURE.  47 

you,  is  to  have  its  parentrge.  Your  spirit  is  to  pass  into  them, 
by  a  law  of  transition  that  is  natural,  and  well  nigh  irresistible. 
And  then  you  are  to  meet  them  in  a  future  life,  and  see  how 
much  of  blessing  or  of  sorrow  they  will  impute  to  you — to  share 
their  unknown  future,  and  look  upon  yourselves,  as  father  and 
mother  to  their  destiny.  Such  thoughts,  I  know,  are  difficult 
for  you  to  meet ;  difficult  because  they  open  real  scenes,  which 
you  are,  one  day,  to  look  upon.  Loving  these  your  children, 
as  most  assuredly  you  do,  can  you  think  that  you  are  fulfilling 
the  office  that  your  love  requires  ?  Go  home  to  your  Christ- 
less  house,  look  upon  them  all  as  they  gather  round  you,  and 
ask  it  of  your  love  faithfully  to  say,  whether  it  is  well  between 
you?  And  if  no  other  argument  can  draw  you  to  God,  let 
these  dear  living  arguments  come  into  your  soul  and  prevail 
there. 


ARGUMENT 


FOR 

DISCOURSES   ON   CHRISTIAN  NURTURE,'* 


DEAR  BRETHREN, — Your  decision,  when  suspending  the  sale 
of  my  little  book,  to  do  it  without  '  publicity,'  was  kindly  de- 
signed ;  but,  inasmuch  as  1  heard  of  it  in  the  streets  the  very 
next  day,  I  should  have  been  quite  as  well  satisfied  if  you  had 
not  extended  a  show  of  protection  to  my  infirmity,  which  after 
all  was  to  be  so  precarious.  You  will,  at  least,  make  no  com- 
plaint under  the  circumstances,  if  I  publish  the  suspension 
myself. 

The  history  of  this  little  book  is  worthy  of  recital.  When  I 
returned  from  Europe,  I  found  that  certain  paragraphs  of  an 
article  which  I  had  published  in  the  New  Englander  had  provo- 
ked some  feeling  of  dissent,  in  the  ministerial  Association  to 
which  I  belong,  and  that  T  was  appointed  to  discuss  a  ques- 
tion made  up  on  the  subject  of  Christian  training,  involving 
the  matter  dissented  from.  I  produced  two  discourses  on  the 
question,  for  my  pulpit,  and  read  the  argument  before  the  Asso- 
ciation. The  question  was  then  discussed  by  the  members 
present.  I  do  not  recollect  that  any  one  seriously  objected  to 

*  The  whole  title  as  originally  printed  was,  "  An  Argument  for  Discourses  on 
Christian  Nurture,  addressed  to  the  Publishing  Committee  of  the  Massachusetts 
Sabbath  School  Society." 

5 


50  ARGUMENT   FOR   DISCOURSES 

the  view  given,  or  desired  any  correction  more  radical  than  the 
addition  of  some  verbal  qualifications.  A  venerable  father> 
whose  name  is  a  name  of  confidence  and  respect,  second  to  no 
other  in  our  churches,  offered  a  motion  that  I  should  be  re- 
quested to  print  the  discourses.  No  one  objected,  and  the  vote 
was  passed,  I  believe,  nem.  con.  They  were  not  produced  for 
publication,  but  my  strong  conviction  of  the  importance  of  the 
subject  and  of  the  view  presented,  induced  me  afterwards  to 
comply ;  and  while  I  was  preparing  them  for  publication,  in 
another  manner,  one  of  the  members  of  your  committee  re. 
quested  me  to  allow  your  Society  to  publish  them.  I  felt  some 
doubt,  which  I  expressed,  whether  your  Society  would  do  it; 
not  because  there  is  any  thing  in  the  practical  view  presented, 
which  conflicts  with,  or  may  not  with  very  slight  modifications 
be  adopted  into  the  received  opinions  of  any  theological  school 
known  among  us ;  but  because>he  view  itself  is  different  from 
that  commonly  held,  and  was  likely  not  to  meet  a  ready  accept- 
ance. Your  committee  had  the  manuscript  in  their  possession 
for  five  or  six  months. .  It  made  its  first  impression  as  anony- 
mous. I  have  understood  that  it  was  much  discussed,  and 
finally  that  every  member  of  your  large  committee  actually  read 
it  foAimself.  I  have  under  stood  also  that  you  had  no  doubt  of 
the  substantial  orthodoxy  of  the  discourses;  but  had,  as  I 
expected  you  would  have,  much  hesitancy  in  regard  to  the 
impression  they  would  make  on  the  public.  You  sent  the  man- 
uscript back  to  me  twice,  for  the  insertion  of  qualifications  and 
the  modification  of  phrases  ;  in  which,  as  it  cost  me  no  change 
of  opinion,  I  was  ready  to  gratify  you.  Finally,  after  a  long 
pause  of  three  or  lour  months,  such  as  generally  precedes  some 
great  convulsion  of  nature,  the  "  Discourses  on  Christian  Nur- 
ture" were  published.  Some  little  commendatory  notices  ap- 
peared. The  most  strongly  Calvinistic,  and  as  many  judge, 
the  most  thoroughly  respectable  Congregational  paper  in  New- 
England,  (precisely  what  I  should  have  expected,)  was  full 
and  decided  in  its  commendation,  and  published  extracts,  I  have 


ON   CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  51 

been  told,  for  the  benefit  of  its  readers.  It  was  noticed  with 
qualified  favor,  (which  also  I  should  have  expected,)  by  a  very 
candid  and  highly  respected  writer  in  the  Episcopal  paper  of 
this  city.  It  seemed  about  to  get  audience,  in  fact,  before  the 
public,  without  producing  any  alarm  whatever. 

But  the  day  was  coming.  A  "  Letter"  addressed  to  me  was 
at  length  published,  under  the  "unanimous"  sanction  of  the 
North  Association  of  Hartford  county,  in  which  the  most  seri- 
ous objections  are  made  to  the  '  Discourses ;'  and  particularly 
that  they  are  full  of  "  dangerous  tendencies."  The  "  Letter"  is 
a  remarkably  quiet  epistle,  but  it  has  been  very  industriously 
circulated  and  the  "  dangerous  tendencies,"  like  the  fuse  hissing 
upon  a  bomb,  have  thrown  the  ancient  and  honorable  com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts,  including,  for  aught  that  appears, 
the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  itself,  into  a 
general  panic.  How  Jar  the  American  Sunday  School  Union, 
which  is  a  rival  institution  to  your  Society,  has  exerted  itself 
through  its  agents  to  increase  the  panic,  I  know  only  by  report. 
Enough,  that  when  I  attended  the  General  Association  of  your 
state  at  Worcester,  a  few  days  ago,  I  encountered  manifest- 
ations on  every  side,  which,  if  they  did  not  alarm,  did  a  little 
surprise  me.  I  found  myself  enveloped  in  an  atmosphere  of 
sensibility.  It  was  proposed,  I  understood,  to  the  committee  of 
business,  to  place -upon  their  docket,  as  one  article,  the  admin- 
istration of  some  rebuke  to  your  Society,  for  publishing  so  cor- 
rupt a  book.  In  reading  the  Reports  of  the  District  Associa- 
tions on  the  state  of  religion,  one  of  the  readers  contrived  to 
interline  a  personal  sneer  at  me,  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
audience.  And  among  other  demonstrations  of  courtesy,  which 
1  was  permitted  to  receive  as  a  stranger,  it  was  industriously 
whispered.  I  was  told,  that  what  I  had  said  in  the  "  Adver- 
tisement" to  my  little  book,  of  being  requested  by  the  Associa- 
tion to  publish  it,  is  not  true ! — a  civility  that  has  since  come 
into  print,  in  certain  periodicals  of  Boston.  In  the  dignity  of 
these  demonstrations,  unless  you  have  methods  of  exhibiting 


52  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

sensibility  in  your  state  that  are  quite  peculiar  to  yourselves,  it 
is  manifest  that  I  have  touched  the  quick  of  theologic  odium. 
And  now,  when  your  numerous  committee,  after  having  sifted 
my  manuscript  till  the  paper  itself  was  near  giving-  out  in  the 
process,  coming  thus  to  the  deliberate  conclusion  that  there  is 
no  bad  error  in  it,  and  finally  giving  it  to  the  public,  return  to 
give  me  notice  that  you  feel  obliged,  for  a  time  at  least,  to  sus- 
pend the  publication;  it  is  evident  that  the  excitement  must 
finally  have  reached  the  pitch,  usually  called,  in  newspaper 
phrase,  "great  consternation." 

Is  it  now  too  much  to  ask  of  your  friends  in  Massachusetts, 
that  they  will  descend  from  the  tragic  altitude  of  their  resent- 
ments, long  enough  to  go  through,  with  me,  a  brief  comparison 
of  my  doctrine  of  Christian  nurture,  with  doctrines  and  opin- 
ions formerly  held  by  men  of  acknowledged  soundness  in  the 
iaith  1  I  ask  it,  not  because  I  do  not  feel  myself  at  liberty,  when 
truth  seems  to  require  it,  to  defy  all  human  authorities ;  but 
simply  because  it  is  pleasant  to  have  the  sanction  of  venerable 
names,  when  we  .may,  and  especially  since  there  seem  to  be 
many  who  are  more  fit  subjects  of  authority  than  of  reason.  I 
made  some  reference  in  the  '  Discourses,'  to  what  had  been  the 
views  of  Christian  teachers  in  past  ages.  If  I  erred  in  not 
being  more  full  on  that  subject,  I  will  now  supply  the  deficiency, 
not  without  some  confidence  that  this  panic  before  which  you 
have  yielded,  will  be  discovered,  like  many  others  which  have 
troubled  the  world,  to  have  had  its  birth  in  ignorance. 

If  I  give  you  reason  to  believe  that  the  same  doctrine  of 
Christian  nurture  was  held  by  the  church  of  the  apostolic  age, 
in  connexion  with  infant  baptism,  after  which  the  rite  fell  into 
long  ages  of  abuse  , where  its  proper  meaning  was  lost  out  of 
mind ;  then  that  when  the  Reformation  came  it  brought  no 
such  view  of  it  to  light,  that  the  reformers  and  fathers  and 
learned  professors  whom  we  have  most  in  confidence,  have 
ever,  down  to  the  present  day,  had  any  fixed  agreement  among 
themselves,  in  regard  to  the  state  of  childhood  as  connected 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  53 

with  baptism,  or  the  meaning  of  the  rite  itself,  and  have  ad- 
vanced continually  different  theories  without  offence— some  of 
them  regarded  ae  even  ultra  orthodox,  asserting  the  precise 
doctrine  of  nurture  which  I  have  maintained;  if  I  show  you 
moreover  that  the  very  type  of  religion  which  has  produced  this 
extraordinary  sensitiveness  to  my  book,  is  in  fact  a  novelty 
itself  just  a  hundred  years  old,  being  that  which  was  derisively 
called  "  New  Light"  in  its  day,  and  which  now  is  taken  to  be 
really  synonymous  with  antiquity  and  all  orthodoxy ;  a  type  of 
religion  which  approaches  strict  individualism,  which  practi- 
cally hangs  all  power  and  progress  on  adult  conversions,  which 
flowered  in  the  brilliant  era  of  Burchard  and  Knapp,  and  is 
now  dying  under  mildew  or  passing  into  seed ; — showing  you 
this  I  think  your  committee  will  at  least  find  some  confirmation 
of  their  judgment,  and  the  subjects  of  this  panic  some  solution 
of  the  very  peculiar  courtesy  and  intellectual  dignity  that  has 
attended  their  demonstrations. 

In  the  '  Discourses,'  (p.  32,)  I  quoted  two  passages,  one 
from  Justin  Martyr,  the  other  from  Ireneus,  which  are,  at  once, 
proofs  of  the  existence  of  infant  baptism;  also  that  the  rite  was, 
in  that  early  age,  called  regeneration ;  also  that  the  subjects 
were  accounted  and  treated  as  disciples.  In  the  third  chapter 
of  John  also,  and  in  Titus  3 :  5,  we  see  that  water  and  regen- 
eration are  already  cognate  terms,  and  that  the  language  ot 
the  church  in  the  age  succeeding,  is  no  departure  from  the  lan- 
guage of  scripture  itself.  [Compare  Colman's  Christ.  Antiq. 
p.  265.] 

We  also  find  inscriptions  on  the  monuments  of  children,  con- 
sidered by  antiquarians  to  be  of  a  very  early  age,  probably  of 
the  first  two  or  three  centuries,  in  which  they  are  called  fideles, 
i.  e.  faithfuls.  The  following  is  an  example. — 

"  A  faithful  descended  of  faithfuls,  here  lies  Zoslmus.  He  lived  two  years 
one  month  and  twenty-five  days."  Suonarotti,  17.  Fabretti,  Cap.  4. 

5* 


54  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

Turning  now  to  Acts  16 :  15,  we  find  Lydia,  after  her  bap- 
tism, speaking  of  herself  as  one  adjudged  to  be  faithful.  And 
then  passing  to  Titus,  1 :  6,  where  it  is  prescribed  that  the 
elder  shall  be  one  "having  faithful  children,"  we  become  ap- 
prised of  the  fact  that  the  children  of  disciples  were  accustomed 
also  then  to  be  called  faithfuls  as  afterwards,  and  in  common 
with  disciples  of  a  mature  age.  Nor  let  it  be  said  that  the  words 
which  follow  in  the  latter  passage, — "not  accused  of  riot,  or 
unruly,"  (that  is,  not  in  bad  repute  as  a  wild,  ill  governed  fam- 
ily,) show  that  the  term  faithful  relates  to  children  who  are 
truly  be  lievers.  When  does  it  occur  to  us  to  call  children  faith- 
fuls because  they  are  well  behaved  1  Manifestly,  the  term  has 
reference  to  just  that  age  when,  being  called  faithfuls  on  ac- 
count of  their  baptism,  good  behavior  and  Christian  manners 
were  the  only  or  principal  evidence  ol  Christian  character  to 
be  looked  for.  And  that  every  father  is  able  so  to  train  up  his 
children  that  they  may  properly  deserve  this  title,  is  so  far 
assumed  that  if  he  fails  to  do  it,  the  fact  must  be  taken  as 
presumptive  evidence  against  him,  as  being  one  whojs  unfit  to 
rule  as  an  elder  in  the  church. 

Then  again,  we  open  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  and  we 
find  it  addressed  to  the  "  Saints  at  Ephesus  and  the  faithful 
m  Christ  Jesus,"  which,  making  nothing  of  the  particular  words 
employed,  does  at  least  mean  that  the  epistle  is  addressed  to 
Christian  brethren.  And  among  these,  "children"  are  directly 
addressed,  in  the  same  way  as  other  members  of  the  frater- 
nity. The  same  is  true  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  and 
also  in  the  first  Epistle  of  John.  In  which,  apart  from  all  theo- 
ries, we  see  children  familiarly  recognized,  with  their  parents, 
among  the  adult  Christian  disciples  and  addressed  in  the  sec- 
ond person,  with  as  little  thought  of  impropriety,  as  the  adults 
themselves. 

If  now  we  ask,  in  what  view  all  these  facts  and  usages  of  the 
first  churches  had  their  explication,  no  better  answer  can  be 


ON   CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.    *  55 

given,  than  that  which  is  offered  by  Neander.  Shortly  after 
advancing,  about  ten  years  ago,  -the  same  view  of  Christian 
nurture  maintained  in  my  '  Discourses,'  I  fell  upon  the  follow- 
ing passage  in  his  Church  History,  by  which,  as  I  was  young 
in  the  truth,  I  was  greatly  supported.  It  was  precisely  this 
that  I  had  in  mind,  when  I  said,  in  my  tract,  that  my  doctrine 
is  "as  old  as  the  Christian  Church."  Better  authority  will 
hardly  be  required.  The  passage  relates,  it  will  be  seen,  to 
the  import  of  infant  baptism,  or  to  the  practical  ideas  origin- 
ally held  in  connection  with  infant  baptism.  And  he  has  in 
view  the  two  passages  of  Justin  Martyr  and  Ireneus  just  refer- 
red to. 

"  It  is  the  idea  of  infant  baptism  that  Christ,  through  the  divine  life  which  he 
imparted  to,  and  revealed  in,  human  nature,  sanctified  that  germ  from  its  earl- 
iest development.  The  child  born  in  a  Christian  family  was,  when  all  things 
were  as  they  should  be,  to  have  this  advantage  over  others,  that  he  did  not  come 
to  Christianity  out  of  heathenism  or  the  sinful  natural  life,  but  from  the  first 
dawning  of  consciousness  unfolded  his  powers  under  the  imperceptible,  prevent- 
ing influences  of  a  sanctifying,  ennobling  religion ;  that  with  the  earliest  ger- 
mination of  the  natural  self  conscious  life,  another  divine  principle  of  life,  trans- 
forming the  nature,  should  be  brought  nigh  to  him.  ere  yet  the  ungodly  principle 
could  come  into  full  activity,  and  the  latter  should,  at  once,  find  here  its  powerful 
counterpoise.  In  such  a  life,  the  new  birth  was  not  to  constitute  a  new  crisis  be- 
ginning at  some  definable  moment,  ])ut  it  was  to  begin  imperceptibly,  and  so  pro- 
ceed through  the  whole  life.  Hence,  baptism,  the  visible  sign  of  regeneration, 
was  to  be  given  to  the  child  at  the  very  outset — the  child  was  to  be  consecrated 
to  the  Redeemer  from  the  very  beginning  of  its  life."  Neander's  Church  His- 
tory, Torretfs  translation,  p,  311,  '12. 

A  more  popular  and  practical  view  of  Christianity,  as  seen  in 
the  domestic  life  of  families,  and  one,  at  the  same  time,  wholly 
coincident,  is  given  by  Cave. 

"Gregory  Nazianzen  peculiarly  commends  his  mother,  that  not  only  she  her- 
self was  consecrated  to  God  and  brought  up  under  a  pious  education,  but  that  she 
conveyed  it  down,  as  a  necessary  inheritance,  to  her  children ;  and  it  seems  her 
daughter  Gorgonia  was  so  well  seasoned  with  these  holy  principles,  that  she 
religiously  walked  in  the  steps  of  so  good  a  patern  ;  and  did  not  only  reclaim  her 
husband,  but  educated  her  children  and  nephews  in  the  ways  of  religion,  giving 
them  an  excellent  example  while  she  lived,  and  leaving  this,  as  her  last  charge 


56  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

and  request  when  she  died.  *****  This  was  the  dis- 
cipline under  which  Christians  were  brought  up  in  those  times.  Religion  was 
instilled  into  t/iem  betimes,  which  grew  up  and  mixed  itself  with,  their  ordinary 
labors  and  recreations.  *******go  that 
Jerome  says,  of  the  place  where  he  lived,  you  could  not  go  into  the  field,  but  you 
might  hear  the  plowman  at  bis  hallelujahs,  the  mower  at  his  hymns,  and  the 
vine-dresser  singing  David's  Psalms."  Primitive  Christianity,  p.  173,  '4. 

But  when  the  Christian  ministry  became  changed  into  a 
priesthood,  and  external  rites,  performed  by  priestly  hands, 
were  regarded  as  having  a  magical  power  in  themselves, 
Christain  nurture  was,  in  fact,  superseded.  Indeed,  the  whole 
matter  of  religion,  as  well  in  the  case  of  adults  as  of  infants, 
was  dispensed  by  the  priesthood,  whose  prerogative  it  was  to 
open  heaven  to  all. 

To  follow  the  church  into  all  the  absurd  opinions  of  this 
subject  through  which  she  strayed  for  long  ages,  is  unneces- 
sary. We  descend  immediately  to  the  Reformation,  and  the 
views  developed  between  that  period  and  the  present  And 
here  we  shall  find  that  no  settled  opinion  on  the  subject  of  infant 
baptism  and  of  Christian  nurture  has  ever  been  attained  to. 
Between  the  standard  Protestant  writers  themselves  there  has 
been  no  agreement.  And  yet  we  shall  distinguish,  here  and 
there,  gleams  of  the  doctrine  I  have  advanced  in  the  '  Discours- 
es,' and  finally  in  some  of  the  accredited  theologians,  both  of 
England  and  of  New  England,  a  doctrine  carefully  matured 
and  fully  stated,  so  nearly  identical  with  that  by  which  I  have 
frightened  the  over  sensitive  orthodoxy  of  some,  as  to  leave 
room  for  no  important  distinction. 

It  is  difficult  to  assign  a  precise  and  definite  meaning  to  what 
Luther  advanced  on  this  subject.  We  know  that  he  taught 
and  held  the  most  rigid  views  of  election,  and  yet  he  says : 

"  Paul  commendeth  and  setteth  it  [baptism]  forth  with  honorable  titles,  calling 
it  the  washing  of  the  new  birth,  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Tit.  3. 
And  here  also,  [Gal.  3 :  27,]  he  saith,  that  all  they  which  are  baptized  have  put 
on  Christ.  As  if  he  said, '  Ye  are  carried  out  of  the  law  into  a  new  birth,  which 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  57 

is  wrought  in  baptism.'     Wherefore  baptism  is  a  thing  of  great  force  and  effica- 
cy.'    Comm.  in  loe. 

This  certainly  is  not  any  doctrine  which  I  have  advanced. 
Indeed,  it  seems  to  convey  a  strong  scent  of  the  old  errors  in 
which  he  had  been  trained,  and  out  of  which  he  was  not  yet 
fully  emancipated.  Calvin  is  more  intelligent  and  appears  to 
have  carried  his  thoughts  farther  into  the  subject.  His  opin- 
ion seems  to  be  that  the  elect  infants,  and  they  only,  have  any 
advantage  in  baptism. 

"  Christ  was  sanctified  from  his  earliest  infancy,  that  he  might  sanctify  in  him- 
self all  his  elect. 

"  But  how,  it  is  inquired,  are  infants  regenerated  who  have  no  knowledge 
either  of  good  or  evil  7  We  reply  that  thu  worjj  of  God  is  not  yet  without  exist- 
ence because  it  is  not  observed  or  understood  by  us.  Now  it  is  certain  that  some 
infants  are  saved,  and  that  they  are  previously  regenerated  by  the  Lord  is  beyond 
all  doubt." 

"  They  are  baptized  into  future  repentance  and  faith  ;  for  though  these  graces 
have  not  yet  been  formed  in  them,  the  seeds  of  both,  are  nevertheless  implanted  in 
their  hearts  by  the  secret  operations  of  the  Spirit."  Ins.  Cap.  XVI.  §17,  18,20. 

I  claim  no  authority  under  this  view  of  Calvin,  save  that 
in  the  words  italicised  he  falls  into  the  same  deadly  error  impu- 
ted to  me  when  I  say,  in  the  '  Discourses,'  that  "  regenerate 
character  may  exist  long  before  it  is  fully  and  formally  develop- 
ed." Owen  uses  language  hardly  reconcilable  with  Calvin, 
unless  it  can  be  shown  either  that  all  infants  who  die  are  elect, 
or  that  all  elect  infants  die. 

"  The  children  of  believers  are  all  of  them  capable  of  the  grace  signified  in 
baptism,  and  some  of  them  are  certainly  partakers  of  it ;  viz,  such  as  die  in  their 
infancy." 

"  God  having  appointed  baptism  as  the  sign  and  seal  of  regeneration  *  *  * 
it  follows  that  infants  who  die  in  their  infancy,  have  the  grace  of  regeneration 
and  consequently  as  good  a  right  to  baptism  as  believers  themselves."  Owen's 
Works,  vol.  XXI.  549. 

We  come  now  to  Ridgely,  whose  doctrine  appears  to  hold  a 
different  cast,  in  which  it  is  more  strongly  resembled  to  the 


58  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

view  advanced  in  my  '  Discourses,'  as  will  appear  on  a  com- 
parison of  the  two  following  passages : 

"  I  think  those  arguments  which  are  generally  brought  to  prove  that  the  infants 
of  believing  parents,  as  such,  have  the  seeds  of  faith  can  hardly  be  defended." 

"  Baptism  is  an  external  sign  of  that  faith  and  hope,  which  he  has  that  dedi- 
cates a  person  to  God.  that  the  person  dedicated  shall  obtain  the  saving  blessings 
of  the  covenant  of  grace  *  *  *  *  *  Indeed  when  we 
engage  in  this  ordinance,  we  ought  to  expect  some  saving  blessings  as  the  con- 
sequence thereof,  as  much  as  when  we  engage  in  any  other  ordinance  of  divine 
appointment."  Ridgely's  Body  of  Divinity,  fol.  vol.  II.  409. 

Precisely  how  much  is  intended  in  this  language,  it  may  be 
difficult  to  say,  without  a  more  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
authors' opinions  generally  than  I  possess,  but  it  has  a  very  dif- 
ferent cast  from  that  of  Calvin  or  Owen. 

Baxter  was  a  man  of 'motion,  and  we  shall  see  that  the  work- 
ing of  his  mercurial  mind  has  carried  him  into  a  direct  scrutiny 
of  the  relation  itself  of  parents  and  children.  I  hope  our  cen- 
sors of  orthodoxy  will  deal  gently  with  him,  if  in  the  passage 
that  follows  he  is  found  asserting  the  same  doctrine  of  "  organ- 
ic" power  and  character  as  that  into  which  I  have  ventured  so 
rashly. 

"  ft.    Why  then  are  they  baptized  who  cannot  covenant  ? 

"A.  As  children  are  made  sinners  and  miserable  by  the  parents,  without 
any  act  of  their  own,  so  they  are  delivered  out  of  it,  by  the  free  grace  of  Christ, 
upon  a  condition  performed  by  their  parents.  Else  they  that  are  visibly  bom 
in  sin  and  misery  should  have  no  certain  or  visible  way  of  remedy.  Nature 
maketh  them  as  it  were  parts  of  their  parents,  or  so  near  as  causeth  their  sin  and 
misery.  And  this  nearness  supposed,  God,  by  his  free  grace,  hath  put  it  in  the 
power  of  the  parents  to  accept  for  them  the  blessings  of  the  covenant,  and  to 
enter  them  into  the  covenant  of  God,  the  parents'  will  being  instead  of  their  own, 
who  yet  have  no  will  to  choose  for  themselves."  Teacher  of  Householders,  fol.  vol. 
II.  p.  135. 

The  next  passage  I  cite,  as  one  that  is  remarkable  for  con- 
taining in  a  single  sentence,  almost  every  point  of  doctrine  in- 
volved in  my  view  of  Christian  nurture,  without  professing  to 
give  any  theory  at  all  of  that  subject;  "  the  secret  seeds"  of  a 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  59 

new  character  planted  by  "education" — before  "actual  ac- 
quaintance with  Christ" — "stirring,  working  and  reaching 
after  further  grace" — all  in  such  a  way  that  the  new  character 
gets  the  start  of  what  is  evil  and  "ungodly."  The  only  thing 
Tvantmg  is  that  such  a  result  is  not  setup  as  the  aim  of  paren- 
tal training,  but  is  merely  affirmed  of  "  some"  children.  Yet 
of  such  a  number  that  when  we  come  to  "  confirmation,"  which 
he  is  here  commending,  two  classes  are  to  be  made,  those  who 
are  to  have  simple  "  confirmation"  and  those  who  are  first  to 
have  "  absolution."  And  if  some  children  are  to  be  confirmed 
without  absolution,  it  is  making  a  very  practical  matter  certain- 
ly of  the  possibility  that  children  may  "grow  up"  in  piety. 

"  Of  those  baptized  in  infancy,  some  do  betimes  receive  the  secret  seeds  of 
grace,  which,  by  the  blessings  of  a  holy  education,  is  stirring  in  them  according 
to  their  capacity,  and  working  them  to  God  by  actual  desires,  and  working  them 
from  all  known  sin,  and  entertaining  further  grace,  and  turning  them  into  actual 
acquaintance  with  Christ,  as  soon  as  they  arrive  at  full  natural  capacity,  so  that 
they  never  were  actual  ungodly  persons."  Confirmation,  fol.  vol.  IV.  p.  267. 

The  citation  that  follows  brings  us  to  the  same  result  by  a 
different  method— showing  in  particular,  the  relative  impor- 
tance in  Baxter's  view  of  Christian  nurture  and  Christian 
preaching  as  the  instrument  of  adult  conversions.  The  italics 
are  his  own. 

"Ungodly  parents  do  serve  the  devil  so  effectually,  in  the  first  impressions  on 
their  children's  minds,  that  it  is  more  than  magistrates  and  ministers  and  all  re- 
forming means  can  afterwards  do  to  recover  them  from  that  sin  to  God.  Where- 
as, if  you  would  first  engage  their  hearts  to  God  by  a  religious  education,  piety 
would  then  have  all  those  advantages  that  sin  hath  now.  (Prov.  22:  6.)  The 
language  which  you  teach  them  to  speak  when  they  are  children  they  will  use 
all  their  life  after,  if  they  live  with  those  that  use  it.  And  so  the  opinions  which 
they  first  receive,  and  the  customs  which  they  are  used  to  at  first,  are  very 
hardly  changed  afterward.  I  doubt  not  to  affirm,  that  a  godly  education  is  Ood's 
first  and  ordinary  appointed  means  for  the  begetting  of  actual  faith  and  other 
graces  in  the  children  of  believers.  Many  may  have  received  grace  before  ;  but 
they  cannot  sooner  have  actual  faith,  repentance,  love,  or  any  grace,  than  they 
have  reason  itself  in  act  and  exercise.  And  the  preaching  of  the  word  by  public 
ministers  is  not  the  first  ordinary  means  of  grace  to  any  but  those  that  were 


60  ARGUMENT    FOR   DISCOURSES 

graceless  till  they  come  to  hear  such  preaching ;  that  is,  to  those  on  whom  the 
first  appointed  means  hath  been  neglected  or  proved  vain;  *  *  *  * 
therefore  it  is  apparent  that  the  ordinary  appointed  means  for  the  first  actual  grace 
is  parents'  godly  instruction  and  education  of  their  children.  And  public  preach- 
ing is  appointed  for  the  conversion  of  those  only  that  have  missed  the  blessing 
of  the  first  appointed  means."  Christian  Directory,  vol.  II.  cap.  6,  §  4,  folio, 
p.  516. 

One  passage  more  from  Baxter,  in  which  he  teaches  my  cen- 
sors the  difference  between  presuming  forwards  and  backwards; 
forwards  on  the  faith  of  God's  promises  and  offered  privileges, 
and  backwards  on  results  that  involve  our  own  personal  fidelity 
and  righteousness.  Though,  undoubtedly,  the  presumption 
that  a  child  will  grow  up  a  Christian  is  to  be  retained  until  it 
is  displaced  by  sufficient  evidence. 

"It  is  a  probable  argument — '  Such  an  infant  is  born  of  Christian  parents  ; 
therefore  he  will  be  an  actual  believer.''  But  it  is  not  a  probable  argument — 
'  Such  a  man,  at  age,  that  professeth  not  Christianity,  -had  Christain  parents 
therefore  he  is  a  believer.'  "  Postscript  fol.  vol.  IV.  p.  303. 

From  the  best  and  most  respected  authorities  in  the  Church 
of  England,  I  might  bring  declarations  to  the  same  effect  with- 
out number,  but  as  their  view  of  baptism  is  different  generally 
from  any  that  we  are  able  to  admit,  I  desist,  only  adding  one  as 
an  example. 

"  Here  is  the  consequent  fruit  and  benefit  of  good  education — And  vhen  he  is 
old  he  will  not  depart  from  it.  Thus  we  are  to  understand,  according  to  the  moral 
probability  of  things  ;  not  as  if  this  happy  effect  did  always  and  infallibly  follow 
upon  the  good  education  of  a  child  ;  but  that  tin's  very  frequently  is  and  may 
probably  be  presumed  and  hoped  to  be,  the  fruit  and  effect  of  a  pious  and  prudent 
education.  Till  Olson's  Works,  vol.  III.  p.  179. 

But  we  pass  the  sea.  And  now  the  question  is,  what  opin- 
ions have  been  held  on  this  subject,  by  our  New  England  di- 
vines? And  first  of  all  it  will  be  evident  here  on  examination, 
that  no  settled  opinion  of  the  grounds  or  import  of  infant  bap- 
tism has  ever  been  attained  to,  certainly  none  that- will  author- 
ize Christian  men  to  denounce  as  heretical  and  dangerous 


OX    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  61 

every  other  opinion  that  may  chance  to  differ  from  their  own. 
Do  we  hold  that  baptism  accrues  to  the  special  benefit  of  elect 
infants?  I  certainly  do  not.  Is  there  any  one  of  your  respecta- 
ble committee  who  entertains  the  distinction  of  elect  and  non- 
elect  infants  at  all  ?  We  may  not  have  reasoned  ourselves  out 
of  this  once  familiar  distinction,  as  pertaining  to  infants ;  but  it 
is  gone,  time  has  killed  it.  Do  we  hold  that  baptism  accrues 
to  the  benefit  of  infants  that  die  ?  What  better  possibly,  what 
better,  in  common  opinion,  is  the  condition  of  infants  that  die 
baptized  than  if  they  were  not  baptized  1  But  there  is  some- 
thing like  a  covenant  made  in  this  matter  of  baptism.  Even 
so,  in  this  we  all  agree.  But  what  is  the  covenant,  what  mean- 
ing and  force  has  it?  Here  we  never  have  agreed  and  do 
not  now.  The  Baptists  have  pushed  us  for  an  answer ;  we 
have  given  them  many  answers,  but  never  any  single  answer 
in  which  we  could  agree  ourselves.  And  so  conscious  was 
Edwards,  in  his  debate  on  the  "  Halfway  Covenant,"  of  the 
ambiguity  resting  on  this  point,  that  he  purposely  put  the  sub- 
ject by,  saying: 

"Though  I  have  no  doubts  about  the  doctrine  of  infant  baptism,  yet  God's 
manner  of  dealing  with  such  infants  as  are  regularly  dedicated  to  him  in  baptism, 
is  a  matter  liable  to  great  disputes  and  would  require  a  large  dissertation  to  clear 
it  up."  Ei/ici/ril*'  Works,  vol.  I.  p.  90. 

Our  fathers  had  been  accustomed,  in  Europe,  to  State 
churches,  in  which  baptism  practically  gave  a  title  to  com- 
plete membership.  But  they  organized  their  churches  here, 
as  may  be  seen  by  the  Cambridge  Platform  of  1649,  on  a  differ- 
ent principle,  allowing  none  to  be  members,  save  such  as  gave 
evidence  of  spiritually  renewed  character.  Meantime  none 
were  allowed  to  be  voters  in  the  commonwealth,  except  in  the 
Hartford  and  Providence  colonies,  unless  they  were  members 
of  the  church ;  and  since  they  were  not  able  to  rid  themselves 
of  this  latter  political  error,  which  they  had  brought  over  among 
their  many  European  prejudices,  the  correction  they  had 
6 


62  ARGUMENT    FOR   DISCOURSES 

made,  in  their  views  of  church  membership,  only  brought  them 
into  trouble  and  confusion.  For  they  began  to  find,  as  soon  ag 
their  sons  were  grown  to  manhood,  that  many  of  them  were 
in  fact  aliens  in  the  State ;  and,  what  was  more  uncomfort- 
able to  most  Christians  of  that  age  than  we  can  well  imagine, 
the  children  of  their  sons  and  daughters  often  could  not  be 
baptized.  Hence  another  synod  was  convened,  A.  D.  1662, 
to  find  some  method  of  relieving  these  difficulties.  And  this 
was  done,  by  allowing  to  all  baptized  persons,  living  reputably 
as  regards  outward  character,  and  professing  a  speculative 
assent  to  the  Christian  doctrines,  a  modified  or  half  mem- 
bership— that  is,  so  far  to  be  accounted  members  as  to  have 
a  right  of  baptism  for  their  children,  and  thus  to  become  voters 
in  the  State.  This  decision  was  stoutly  opposed  by  some  of  the 
ablest  and  best  men  in  the  synod,  and  the  matter  was  earnestly 
debated  afterwards  through  the  press.  The  result  was  un- 
doubtedly bad  in  theory,  as  it  proved  also  to  be  in  its  practical 
effects.  But  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  the  error  introduced 
was  a  fruit  of  Arminianism,  as  many  are  wont  to  speak.  The 
synod  were  high  Calvinists  probably  to  a  man,  and  many  of 
the  Calvinistic  fathers  of  the  first  age  were  still  ahVe  and 
present  to  assist  in  the  result.  That  they  had  never  as  yet 
attained  to  any  settled  opinion  of  the  import  of  baptism  as  ap- 
plied to  children,  since  renouncing  the  view  of  the  European 
state  churches,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  they  fell  into  so 
great  a  diversity  of  opinion,  and  also  that  such  a  man  as  In- 
crease Mather  actually  changed  sides  after  the  synod. 

In  the  account  of  the  synod  and  of  the  debate  that  followed, 
as  given. by  Cotton  Mather,  three  positions  are  advanced 
which  are  specially  noticeable  as  elements  of  right  opinion,  and 
from  which  probably  neither  party  dissented. 

1.  That  the  children  of  Christian  parents  trained  in  a  Chris- 
tian way,  often  grow  up  as  spiritually  renewed  persons,  and 
must  indeed  be  accounted  true  disciples  of  Christ,  until  some 
evidence  conclusive  to  the  contrary  is  given  by  their  conduct. 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  63 

"  Children  of  the  covenant  have  frequently  the  beginning  of  grace  wrought 
in  them  in  younger  years,  as  Scripture  and  experience  show.  Instance  Joseph, 
Samuel,  David,  Solomon,  Abijah,  Josiah,  Daniel,  John  Baptist,  Timothy.  Hence 
this  sort  of  persons  [baptized  persons,]  showing  nothing  to  the  contrary  are,  in 
charity  or  to  ecclesiastical  reputation,  visible  believers."  Magnolia,  Book  V., 


2.  That  baptism  supposes  an  initial  state  of  piety,  or  some 
right  beginning,  in  which  the  child  is  prepared  unto  good  by 
causes  prior  to  his  own  wilL 

"  We  are  to  distinguish  between  faith  and  the  hopeful  beginning  of  it,  the  char- 
itable judgment  whereof  runs  upon  a  great  latitude,  and  faith  in  the  special  exer- 
cise of  it,  unto  the  visible  discovery  whereof,  more  experienced  operations  are 
to  be  inquired  after.  The  words  of  Dr.  Ames  are  —  'children  are  not  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  partake  of  all  church  privileges  till  first  increase  of  faith  do  appear,  but 
from  those  which  belong  to  the  beginning  of  faith  and  entrance  into  the  church 
they  are  not  to  be  excluded.'  "  Magnolia,  Book  V.,fol.p.  77. 

3.  That  there  is  a  kind  of  individualism  which  runs  only  to 
evil;  that  the  church  is  designed  to  be  an  organic,  vital,  grace- 
giving  power,  and  thus  a  nursery  of  spiritual  life  to  its  children. 

"The  way  of  the  Anabaptists  to  admit  none  to  membership  and  baptism  but 
adult  professors,  is  the  straitest  way  ;  one  would  think  it  should  be  a  way  of  great 
purity  ;  but  experience  hath  shewed  that  it  has  been  an  inlet  unto  great  corrup- 
tion. If  we.  do  not  keep  in  the  way  of  a  converting,  grace-giving  covenant,  and 
keep  persons  under  those  church  dispensations  wherein  grace  is  given,  the 
church  will  die  of  a  lingering  though  not  violent  death.  The  Lord  hath  not  set 
up  churches  only  that  a  fcia  old  Christians  may  keep  one  another  warm  while 
they  live,  and  then  carry  away  the  church  with  them  when  they  die  ;  no,  but 
that  they  might  with  all  care,  and  with  all  the  obligations  and  advantages  to  that 
care  that  may  be,  nurse  still  successively  another  generation  of  subjects  to  our 
Lord  that  may  stand  up  in  his  kingdom  when  they  are  gone."  Magnolia,  Book 


How  sentiments  like  these  came  to  be  urged,  in  support  of 
the  mongrel  scheme  of  church  membership  proposed  by  the 
synod,  is  not  altogether  clear  ;  for  so  far  from  encouraging  the 
extension  of  a  merely  formal  rite,  they  conduct  us  rather  to  a 
restricted  application  where  it  may  be  the  seal  of  existing  faith, 
and  retain,  by  that  means,.a  real  and  earnest  significance.  And 


64  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOUR^KS 

I  judge,  from  the  representations  of  Mather,  that  sentiments  of 
this  kind  were  concurred  in  by  the  opposing  party  in  the  synod, 
and  \vere  actually  urged  as  arguments  against  the  issue  propo- 
sed. However  this  may  be,  for  I  have  not  had  recourse  to  the 
original  pamphlets  and  debates  of  the  period,  it  is  quiie  certain 
that  these  sentiments  were  held  by  a  large  majority  of  the 
synod ;  and  any  one,  at  all  accjuainted  with  the  general  current 
of  opinions  and  practices  in  the  Reformed  churches,  will  also 
see  that  sentiments  like  these  had  descended  upon  them  and 
were  likely  to  be  held  by  them  all.  The  quotation  from  Dr. 
Ames,  (together  with  those  I  have  made  from  Calvin  and 
Ridgely,)  is  a  more  specific  evidence  to  the  same  effect. 

At  a  later  period,  Mr.  Stoddard  of  Northampton,  took  the 
lar  more  consistent  and  dignified  ground  that  both  sacraments, 
baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper,  are  to  be  regarded  as  means  of 
grace  offered  to  all  who  hold  the  Christian  doctrines  and  main- 
tain a  correct  outward  life.  In  this  opinion  he  was  followed  by 
many.  Meantime,  under  the  combined  influence  of  these  two 
changes,  or  partly  by  force  of  other  causes  operating  to  de- 
press the  intellectual  and  moral  character  of  the  age,  practical 
religion  fell  into  a  serious  and  alarming  state  of  decline.  The 
churches,  it  is  represented,  had  quite  lost  their  spirituality,  and 
what  is  worse,  had  well  nigh  lost  the  idea  of  spiritual  life  itself. 
These  representations,  however,  have  come  to  us  from  the 
age  succeeding,  when  new  scenes  and  a  higher  frame  of  activ- 
ity, connected  with  no  slight  measure  of  censoriousness,  were 
likely  to  give  an  exaggerated  air  to  the  declension  of  the  former 
times.  Still,  making  every  allowance  for  exaggerations  of  this 
nature,  there  was  evidently  a  serious  decline  of  piety  in  the 
churches. 

And  here  comes  forward  Jonathan  Edwards,  followed  by 
Whitfield,  the  Terments,  Davenport  and  other  inferior  teach- 
ers, introducing  a  new  religious  era,  the  same  which  has  con- 
tinued to  the  present  day — the  era  of  extreme  individualism,  of 
adult  conversions,  revivals,  angular  experiences,  hard  and  vio- 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  65 

lent  demonstrations,  painful  exhaustions,  and  now,  at  last,  of 
a  growing  disrespect  to  spirituaf  piety  itself.  To  break  up  the 
dead  formalism  that  reigned  in  the  churches,  Mr.  Edwards 
set  up  and  maintained  as  the  great  first  truth  of  religion,  the 
necessity  of  spiritual  regeneration.  Having  his  controversy 
with  the  halfway  covenant  and  the  doctrine  of'Mr.  Stoddard, 
in  which  he  was  obliged  to  repel  a  formalistic  tendency,  he  fell, 
as  was  natural,  into  a  spiritualism  so  intense  as  practically  to 
hold,  if  not  theoretically,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  spirit- 
ual piety  which  does  not  begin  with  a  definite  and  consciously 
dated  experience.  Depravity  imported  the  same  thing  as  the 
"  unregenerate  state"  of  all  who  come  to  the  age  of  reason. 
That  Christian  nurture  should  have  been  blessed  of  God,  so 
to  counterwork  the  tendencies  of  a  corrupted  nature,  as  to 
bring  the  subject  forward  to  the  age  of  moral  action,  with  a 
heart  prepared  to  obedience,  was  left  out  of  mind.  All  adults, 
not  converted  after  the  age  of  reason,  were  assumed  to  be  under 
sin  and  addressed  as  unreconciled  to  God.  Perhaps  the  defect 
of  family  training  had  been  so  great,  in  that  age  of  decline, 
that  he  might  very  naturally  and  excusably  make  this  assump- 
tion. And  yet  the  assumption  is  not  any  the  less  to  be  re- 
gretted since  it  has  entered  into  the  very  body  of  practical 
religion  among  us,  and  become  a  fixed  element ;  so  that  we 
have  acted  upon  it,  from  that  day  forward,  and  been  warped 
from  our  Christian  duties  and  discolored  in  our  piety  by  it. 
The  attention  he  had  bestowed  on  the  will  gave  a  still  more 
intense  form  of  individualism  probably  to  his  teachings.  He 
also  undertook,  what  I  believe  had  never  before  been  attempted, 
to  give  a  metaphysical  idea  of  the  change  wrought  in  regen- 
eration, showing,  in  terms  of  analysis,  wherein  the  soul  is  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  was  before ;  and  by  this  means  also,  he 
threw  the  individual  into  a  yet  more  perfect  isolation,  as  regards 
organic  laws  and  influences,  and  imparted,  though  undesign- 
edly,  a  more  violent  character  to  the  demonstrations  of  Chris- 
tian experience. 

6* 


66  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

Under  the  head  of  "  Improvements  in  Theology,"  introdu- 
ced by  his  father,  the  younger  Edwards  (Vol.  II.  p.  491,)  says 
that  he  showed  regeneration  to  consist "  in  the  communication 
of  a  new  spiritual  sense  or  taste"    And  this,  he  goes  on  to 
say,  was  shown  to  be  wrought  by  the  immediate  or  sole  agency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  apart  from  all  suasion  and  choice.    "  Previ- 
ous light  and  knowledge"  moreover  were  shown,  he  thinks, 
to  have  only  the  same  relation  to  the  result  that  the  ram's  horns 
had  to  the  fall  of  Jericho.    Perhaps  it  was  well  to  endeavor  a 
metaphysical  idea  of  regeneration,  and  I  know  not  that  any  first 
essay  could  hope  to  be  more  successful.    But  if ' '  improvements 
in  theology"  came  to  a  full  end,  as  many  suppose,  I  believe,  in 
the  days  of  Edwards,  so  that  no  farther  advance  is  to  be  con- 
sidered admissible,  it  might  possibly  have  been  as  well,  regard- 
ing only  this  particular  subj  ect ,  if  they  had  ended  sooner.  Hang- 
ing every  thing  thus  on  miracle,  or  a  pure  ictus  Dei,  sepa- 
rate from  all  instrumental  connexions  of  truth,  feeling,  depend- 
ence, motive  and  choice,  there  was  manifestly  nothing  left  but 
to  wait  for  the  concussion.    It  was  waiting,  in  fact,  as  for  the 
arrival  of  God  in  some  vision  or  trance,  and  since  there  was  no 
intelligible  duty  to  be  done,  as  means  to  the  end,  the  disturbed 
soul  was  quite  sure  to  fall  on  conjuration  to  obtain  the  desired 
miracle ;   cutting  itself  with  the  knives  of  conviction,  tearing 
itself  in  loud  outcries,  and  leaping  round  the  altar  and  calling 
on  the  god  to  come  down  and  kindle  his  fire.    Edwards  himself 
was  a  man  of  too  great  mental  dignity  to  surrender  himself  to 
any  flagrant  excess,  and  yet,  so  strong  was  the  sympathy  be- 
tween the  general  view  of  religion  maintained  by  him  and  the 
extatic  impulses,  that  he  yielded  a  degree  of  indulgence  to 
trances,  visions  and  other  extravagances  of  his  times,  which 
cannot  be  soberly  justified.    The  inferior  characters  of  the  day, 
from  Whitfield  down  to  Davenport,  were  all  for  impulses  and 
divine  concussions  of  course,  and  the  churches  rushed  into 
scenes  of  extravagance  which  present  in  the  history  a  truly 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTJTRE.  67 

mournful  picture.  The  preachers  had  great  hopes  as  the  "  Re- 
vival" went  on,  that  the  whole  people  would  finally  be  con- 
verted. They  encouraged  outcries  and  visions  and  trances  and 
faintings;  they  counted  nothing  a  conversion  which  did  not 
explode  like  a  rocket  in  mid  heaven,  and  the  number  of  these 
explosions  was  accepted  as  the  guage  of  all  progress.  But 
finally,  when  the  confusion  had  run  itself  to  a  limit  in  disgrace, 
and  the  fuel  of  passion  was  quite  burned  away,  then  suddenly 
the  New  Light  power  gave  out,  as  a  motion  that  is  spent,  and 
religion  subsided,  falling  into  a  long  and  dreary  decline. 

Edwards  himself  was  greatly  disappointed  and  chagrined ; 
for  in  the  beginning  of  the  "  Revival,"  he  had  viewed  it  as  the 
harbinger  of  a  new  era,  even  that  of  the  Spirit  in  the  latter  days. 
Now,  fifteen  years  later,  he  writes— 

"  I  cannot  say  that  the  greater  part  of  supposed  converts  give  reason,  by  their 
conversation,  to  suppose  that  they  continue  converts.  The  proportion  may  per- 
haps be  more  truly  represented  by  the  proportion  of  blossoms  on  a  tree,  which 
abide  and  coine  to  mature  fruit,  to  the  whole  number  of  blossoms  in  the  spring." 
Life,  460. 

Whether  he  ever  discovered  the  real  causes  of  the  failure 
by  which  he  was  disappointed,  is  perhaps  doubtful ;  and  yet  in 
his  farewell  sermon  at  Northampton,  when  his  heart  was  bleed- 
ing under  the  wrongs  put  upon  him  by  the  very  converts  in 
whom  he  had  once  rejoiced,  it  seems  to  come  upon  him  as  a 
half  discovery,  at  least,  that  there  might  be  some  better  way. 
And  protesting  more  strongly  than  ever  his  confidence  in  the 
power  of  family  religion,  and  the  essential  need  of  a  piety  form- 
ed by  Christian  nurture,  he  says — 

"  Every  Christian  family  ought  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  little  church,  consecrated  to 
Christ,  and  wholly  influenced  and  governed  by  his  rules.  And  family  education 
and  order  are  some  of  the  chief  means  of  grace.  If  these  fail,  all  other  means  are 
likely  to  prove  ineffectual."  Vol.  I.  p.  90. 

Now  so  great  has  been  the  name  and  authority  of  Edwards, 
that  the  new  era,  or  as  it  has  been  called  in  derision,  the  "  New 


68  ARGUMENT  FOR  DISCOURSES 

Light"  era,  introduced  by  him,  still  continues,  and,  what  is  not 
a  little  remarkable,  we  have  theological  professors,  and  other 
distinguished  teachers,  sworn  to  the  maintenance  of  orthodoxv, 
who  are  actually  defending,  as  synonymous  with  all  antiquity, 
notions  and  practices,  which  are  scarcely  more  than  a  century 
old  !  The  type  of  religion  so  lately  stigmatized  as  "  New  light," 
is  precisely  theirs,  or  only_with  very  slight  modifications,  and 
they  are  actually  found  assailing  me,  as  a  dangerous  intruder 
on  their  othodoxy,  for  maintaining  the  very  opinions  of  the  first 
churches  !  Some  of  our  teachers  have  ventured  to  make  bolder 
modifications,  in  the  theoretic  doctrines  of  Edwards,  but  it  must 
be  allowed  that  our  type  of  practical  religion  is  still  that  of 
the  "  new  light"  age.  It  has  the  same  virtues  and  the  same 
defects.  It  runs  to  the  same  kind  of  excesses,  and,  as  we  have 
lately  seen,  to  those  which  are  scarcely  milder  in  degree.  It 
is  a  religion  that  begins  explosively,  raises  high  frames,  car- 
ries little  or  no  expansion,  and  after  the  day  is  spent,  subsides 
into  a  torpor.  Considered  as  a  distinct  era,  introduced  by 
Edwards,  and  extended  and  caricatured  by  his  contemporaries, 
it  has  one  great  merii  and  one  great  defect.  The  merit  is.  that 
it  displaced  an  era  of  dead  formality,  and  brought  in  the  de- 
mand of  a  truly  spiritual  and  supernatural  experience.  The 
defect  is,  that  it  has  cast  a  type  of  religious  individualism, 
intense  beyond  any  former  example.  It  makes  nothing  of  the 
family,  and  the  church,  and  the  organic  powers  God  has  consti- 
tuted as  vehicles  of  grace.  It  takes  every  man  as  if  he  had 
exisied  alone,  presumes  that  he  is  unreconciled  to  God  until  he 
has  undergone  some  sudden  and  explosive  experience,  in  adult 
years,  or  after  the  age  of  reason ;  demands  that  experience, 
and  only  when  it  is  reached,  allows  the  subject  to  be  an  heir  of 
life.  Then,  on  the  other  side,  or  that  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  the 
very  act  or  ictus  by  which  the  change  is  Avr ought,  is  isolated 
or  individualized,  so  as  to  stand  in  no  connexion  with  any  other 
of  God's  means  or  causes — an  epiphany,  in  which  God  leaps 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  69 

from  the  stars,  or  some  place  above,  to  do  a  work  apart  from 
all  system,  or  connection  with  his  other  works.  Religion  is  thus 
a  kind  of  transcendental  matter,  which  belongs  on  the  outside 
of  life,  and  has  no  part  in  the  laws  by  which  life  is  organized — a 
miraculous  epidemic,  afire-ball  shot  from  the  moon,  something 
holy  because  it  is  from  God,  but  so  extraordinary,  so  out  of 
place,  that  it  cannot  suffer  any  vital  connexion  with  the  ties  and 
causes  and  forms  and  habits,  which  constitute  the  frame  of  our 
history.  Hence  the  desultory,  hard,  violent  and  often  extrav- 
agant or  erratic  character  it  manifests.  Hence,  in  part,  the 
dreary  years  of  decay  and  darkness,  that  interspace  our  months 
of  excitement  and  victory. 

I  know  not  whether  it  has  been  some  secret  sense  of  these 
deficiencies,  struggling  in  the  mind  of  many  distinguished  teach- 
ers in  our  churches,  since  the  days  of  Edwards,  which  has  put 
them  on  the  endeavor  to  supply  a  remedy.  Certain  it  is,  that 
some  of  our  most  respected  and  prominent  divines,  Drs.  Hop- 
kins, West  and  Dwight,  among  the  number,  have  given  their 
testimony  for  Christian  nurture  in  a  manner  perfectly  coinci- 
dent with  the  doctrine,  by  which  I  have  frightened,  so  uncom- 
fortably, the  cautious  orthodoxy  of  some. 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  a  pupil  of  Edwards,  and  lam  willing  to  be- 
lieve that  he  received  from  his  master  some  hints  suggested  by 
his  own  experience,  and  was  thus  put  upon  supplying  a  viejwjof^ 
baptism  as  connected  with  family  nurture,  which  he  had  very 
naturally  omitted,  or  overlooked  in  his  contest  against  formal- 
ism. Dr.  Hopkins  occupies  no  less  than  sixty  pages  in  his 
"System  of  Divinity," in  a  cateful  discussion  of  "the  nature 
and  design  of  infant  baptism,"  in  which  he  lays  down  for  his  main 
proposition,  in  italics,  the  following : — 

"  That  real  holiness  and  salvation  are  secured  to  the  children  of  believers  by  the 
run  ninit  tutu  which  parents  enter  with  God  as  it  respects  their  children,  if  the 
liiu-1-nts  faithfully  ket'iicoccninit  and  fulfill  tc/iut  they  profess  nnd  promise  respect- 
ing  t/ii'ir  rliililren  irhrn  they  offer  them  in  baptism,"  System  of  Divinity,  Vol. 
II.  p.  291. 


70  ARGUMENT     FOR    DISCOURSES 

And  he  means  by  this,  not  that  the  child  shall  sometime  be 
converted,  for  immediately  after,  on  the  same  page  he  says, 

The  parent  promises  if  he  and  the  child  shall  live,  to  bring  it  up  for  Christ,  as 
belonging  to  him,  as  one  of  the  lambs  in  his  flock,  and  bearing  his  mark  and 
name,  to  train  it  up  in  the  way  he  should  go,  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Jx)rd."  p.  291. 

He  uses  also  other  forms  of  expression,  which  show  that  he 
expected  the  children  to  grow  up  in  piety,  perpetrating  the 
same  dire  heresy  by  which  I  have  offended. 

"  The  heart  of  the  children  is  turned  to  their  parents,  when  they  are  disposed 
to  obey  them  in  the  Lord,  and  grow  up  in  the  exercise  of  piety  and  righteous- 
ness" p.  309. 

"How  can  it  be  expected  that  they  will  grow  up  pious  children,  "&c.    p.  319. 

"  Then  the  happy  effect  of  this  will  be  seen  in  the  early  piety  of  the  children, 
who  will  grow  up  in  the  fear  of  God  and  walk  in  his  ways.  p.  324. 

The  very  dangerous  presumption  of  piety  in  the  child,  which 
I  am  supposed  to  have  authorized,  is  far  less  cautiously  offered 
by  him  when  he  says, 

"The  church  receive  and  look  upon  them  as  holy  and  those  who  shall  be 
saved.  So  they  are  as  visibly  holy,  or  as  really  holy,  in  their  view,  as  their  par- 
ents are."  p.  319. 

How  far  his  theory  of  conversion  would  compel  him  to  isolate 
the  act  of  God  by  which  is  wrought  the  spiritual  renovation  of 
a  soul,  I  will  not  undertake  to  decide.  JSnqugji_that  he  asserts 
anorganic  connection  of  character  between  parents  and  chil- 
dren, as  effectual  for  good  as  I'or  evil,  nay,  that  they  may  as 
truly  and  in  the  same  sense  transmit  holiness  as  they  transmit 
existence.  Thus,  after  asserting,  not  more  clearly  or  decided- 
ly than  1  have  done,  the  impossibility  that  parents  should  spirit- 
ually renew  their  children,  considered  as  acting  by  themselves, 
he  says, 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  71 

"  But  it  does  not  follow  from  this,  that  God  has  not  so  constituted  the  cove- 
nant of  grace,  that  holiness  shall  be  communicated,  by  him,  to  the  children 
in  consequence  of  the  faithful  endeavors  of  their  parents,  so  that,  in  this  sense 
and  by  virtue  of  such  a  constitution,  they  do  by  their  faithful  endeavors,  con 
vey  saving  blessings  to  their  children.  In  this  way  they  give  existence  to  their 
children.  God  produces  their  existence  by  his  own  Almighty  energy  ;  but,  by 
the  constitution  he  has  established,  they  receive  their  existence  from  their  par- 
ents, or  by  their  means.  By  an  established  constitution,  parents  convey  moral 
depravity  to  their  children.  And  if  Giid  has  been  pleased  to  make  a  constitu- 
tion and  appoint  a  way,  in  his  covenant  of  grace  with  man,  by  which  pious 
parents  may  convey  and  communicate  moral  rectitude  or  holiness  to  their  chil- 
dren, they,  by  using  the  appointed  means,  do  it  as  really  and  effectually  as  they 
communicate  existence  to  them.  In  this  sense,  therefore,  they  may  convey  and 
give  holiness  and  salvation  to  their  children,  p.  334,  '5. 

Doubtless  I  have  been  somewhat  more  explicit  in  what  I  have 
said  of  the  organic  relation  of  parents  and  children,  but  when 
Dr.  Hopkins  carries  over  from  the  parents  both  "  depravity  and 
grace,"  by  an  "  established  constitution,"  and  both  "  as  really 
and  effectually  as  existence"  itself,  I  am  not  able  to  see  wherein 
I  go  beyond  him  ;  save  that  in  showing  how  the  child  is  in  the 
will,  at  first,  of  the  parents,  to  be  acted  in  as  it  were  by  them  and 
prepared  to  moral  character  by  causes  prior  to  his  own  will,  I 
have  suggested  the  definite  boundary  of  the  "established  con- 
stitution" of  Dr.  Hopkins,  and  likewise  how  it  is,  or  under  what 
philosophic  conditions  that  they  are  "to  communicate  holi- 
ness." 

I  might  go  on  also  to  show  how  Dr.  Hopkins  accounts  for  the 
failures  of  Christian  parents  substantially  in  the  same  way  as 
I  have  done;  rebukes  the  false  notions  prevalent  in  regard 
to  Christian  training;  insists  on  the  essential  absurdity  of  infant 
baptism,  as  commonly  practiced  ;  charges  the  current  unbelief 
on  this  subject  to  the  apostasy  of  the  church,  "  from  the  truth 
once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  to  a  self  excusing  spirit,  and  the 
known  repugnance  of  men  to  duties  and  doctrines  that  conflict 
with  their  "  corrupt  inclinations";  finally  that  a  better  day  is  to 
come,  when  the  Bible  will  recover  its  meaning,  and  true  Chris- 


72  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

tianity,  rising  to  a  new  pitch  of  faith  and  devotion,  will  prac- 
tice the  duties  and  reap  the  delightful  results  appropriate  to 
the  baptism  of  children,  as  an  ordinance  of  God.  He  touches, 
in  fact,  almost  all  the  points  made  in  my  '  Discourses,'  and 
really  I  am  not  able  to  detect  any  difference  between  us,  save 
that  he  draws  his  argument  from  the  terms  of  the  "covenant," 
as  a  positive  institution,  while  I  arrive  at  precisely  the  same 
results  from  a  view  of  the  relation  itself,  between  parents  and 
churches  on  one  side,  and  children  on  the  other ;  that  relation 
being  considered  as  a  vehicle  of  God,  and  thus  a  power.  Dr. 
Hopkins  takes  the  exterior  view  regarding  the  result  as  resting 
in  a  positive  appointment  of  God.  I  have  produced  the  interior 
view,  that  of  inherent  connexion  and  causation.  But  every 
theologian  who  has  got  beyond  his  alphabet,  will  see,  at  a 
glance,  that  both  views  are  only  different  forms  of  one  and  the 
same  truth,  having  each  its  own  peculiar  uses  and  advantages. 
Indeed  I  will  suggest  to  your  committee  that  you  compound 
your  difficulty  with  the  panic  mongers,  by  publishing,  in  the 
same  volume  with  the  '  Discourses,'  this  whole  treajtise  of  Dr 
Hopkins  ;  so  that  when  they  are  frightened  by  the  heresies  of 
one,  they  may  turn  over  and  fortify  their  orthodoxy  by  the 
other. 

Dr.  Witherspoon,  a  contemporary  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  held  opin- 
ions on  this  subject  that  were  in  a  high  degree  coincident, 
though  presented  in  a  more  popular  and  less  doctrinal  shape. 
He  says, 

"I  will  not  enlarge  on  some  refined  remarks  of  persons  as  distinguished  for 
learning  as  piety,  some  of  whom  have  supposed  that  they  [children]  are  ca- 
pable of  receiving  impressions  of  desire  and  aversion,  and  even  of  moral  tem- 
per, particularly  of  love  or  hatred,  in  the  first  year  of  their  lives. 
When  the  gospel  comes  to  a  people  that  have  long  sitten  in  darkness,  there  may 
be  numerous  converts  of  all  ages ;  but  when  the  gospel  has  long  been  preached,  in 
plenty  and  purity,  and  ordinances  regularly  administered,  few  but  those  who  are 
called  in  early  life  are  called  at  all.  A  very  judicious  and  pious  writer,  Rich- 
ard Baxter,  is  of  opinion  that  in  a  regular  state  of  the  church,  and  a  tolera- 


ON   CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  73 

ble  measure  of  faithfulness  and  purity  in  its  officers,  family  instruction  and  gov- 
ernment are  the  usual  means  of  conversion,  public  ordinances  of  edification.  This 
seems  agreeable  to  the  language  of  Scripture  ;  for  we  are  told  that  God  hath 
set  in  the  church  apostles,  prophets,  evangelists,  pastors  and  teachers,  (not  for 
converting  sinners,  but)  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ."  Witherspoon,  Vol.  II.  p.  395, 
397. 

We  descend  now  to  Dr.  Stephen  West,  of  Stockbridge,  who 
wrote  a  generation,  or  half  generation,  later  than  Dr.  Hopkins. 
Many  persons,  yet  living,  remember  the  controversy  carried  on 
between  him  and  Rev.  Cyprian  Strong,  of  Chatham,  in  refer- 
ence to  this  subject :  a  controversy  managed,  on  the  part  of 
Dr.  West,  with  a  degree  of  ability  worthy  of  his  high  reputa- 
tion as  a  man  of  talent.  He  handles  his  argument,  from  the 
covenant,  in  a  different  manner  from  Dr.  Hopkins,  but  comes 
to  the  same  result.  He  says,  in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Strong,  a 
pamphlet  that  will  be  found  in  the  collection  of  the  Connecti- 
cut Historical  Society,  that— 

"  As  the  fate  of  the  offspring  was  suspended,  by  divine  constitution,  on  the 
conduct  of  the  parent,  it  would  be  no  more  than  analogous  to  suppose  that 
provision  is  made,  in  the  covenant  of  grace,  for  parents  to  be  instrumental  in 
transmitting  and  securing  its  blessings,  p.  66. 

But  respecting  this  covenant,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  it  is  to  believers 
that  the  proposals  of  it  are  made — to  those  whose  hearts  are,  in  a- good  measure, 
prepared  for  every  duty.  Nor  is  that  grace,  which  is  necessary  to  such  parental 
faithfulness  as  God  will  bless  to  the  conversion  and  salvation  of  Children,  an 
unattainable  thing,  p.  74. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  burden  my  pamphlet  with  extended  quota- 
tions. He  answers  the  objection,  which  my  little  book  has  pro- 
voked, that  "  children  will  not  consider  their  salvation  depend- 
ing on  their  personal  exercises," — dwells  on  "  the  susceptibility 
of  children  to  impressions,"  while  under  "the  control"  of  their 
parents,  and  before  their  own  will  is  developed, — finds,  in  his 
doctrine,  "  abroad  basis  for  infant  baptism,"  which  on  any  other 
theory  is  absurd  and  insignificant  and  therefore  certain  to  fall 
7 


74  ARGUMENT    fOR    DISCOURSES 

into  practical  disuse, — shows  how  it  will  stimulate  every  parent 
to'  duty,  and  encourage  him  in  it, — what  a  "  spring"  is  one  day 
to  be  given  to  the  cause  of  God  and  spiritual  religion,  by  means 
of  it, — regrets  the  "  unpopular  part"  he  has  been  obliged  to 
take, — and  finally,  if  my  censors  will  suffer  it,  accounts  for  the 
reluctance  of  men  to  admit  his  doctrine,  on  the  ground  that  "  a 
sense  of  obligation  sits  uneasy  on  the  human  mind," — that  there 
is  a  "  latent  desire  in  parents  to  exculpate  themselves,"  and  ''  a 
natural  opposition  in  the  human  heart  to  a  doctrine  which" 
takes  away  so  completely  "  the  excuses"  of  neglect  and  un- 
belief. 

One  passage  only  I  cannot  withhold,  and  I  commend  it  to  the 
special  attention  of  some,  that  they  may  look,  for  once,  on  the 
bearing  of  a  true  Christian  scholar ;  that  they  may  see  how  the 
fathers  of  a  manlier  time  dared  to  hope  for  some  progress  in 
Christian  truth,  and  judge  whether  1  am  most  in  fault,  who 
have  endeavored,  as  I  could,  to  fulfill  the  hope  of  this  revered 
teacher,  and  discharge  the  legacy  he  has  left  us,  or  they  who, 
having  lost  both  the  doctrine  he  held  and  the  spirit  of  courage 
in  which  he  held  it,  turn  pale  at  the  possibility  that  something 
variant  or  new  may  come.  Regretting  that  the  subject  discus- 
sed had  before  been  so  "  sparingly  handled  and  superficially 
treated,"  he  adds — 

"Though,  through  the  natural  blindness  of  the  human  heart,  the  progress 
in  divine  things  is  slow  and  gradual,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  what  is  here  offered 
to  public  view  may  excite  a  more  general  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  subject, 
and  a  more  careful  and  strict  attention  to  it.  Should  this  be  the  effect,  it  is 
presumed  that  FCRTHIR  LIGHT  WILL  STILL  APPEAR."  p.  103. 

Nobly  said  !  and  possibly  the  hope  expressed,  if  we  can  suffer 
it,  will  somehow  be  fulfilled.  I  am  permitted  to  add  that  my 
venerable  friend,  Dr.  Robbins,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Dr.  West, 
distinctly  remembers  that  a  circle  of  ministers  was  gathered  to 
hear  his  pamphlet  read  before  publication ;  and  most  of  them, 
he  informs  me,  coincided  with  it,  but  Dr.  Edwards.(the  younger) 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  75 

was  opposed ;  and  it  was  remarked  that  when  the  part  was  read 
which  showed  the  inherent  connexion  between  the  doctrine 
vindicated  and  infant  baptism,  and  the  insignificance  of  the  rite, 
on  any  other  ground,  Dr.  Edwards  observed  an  ominous  and 
profound  silence,  making  no  reply.  Dr.  Strong,  also,  of  Hart- 
ford, he  remembers  to  have  said,  while  this  controversy  was 
in  progress,  "  Dr.  West  is  right,  his  doctrine  will  ultimately 
prevail ;  but  in  the  present  state  of  the  church  it  can  hardly 
become  a  practical  principle." 

Dr.  Dwight,  in  his  two  sermons  on  "  religious  education," 
letting  go  for  the  present,  the  covenant  as  a  positive  institution, 
passes  directly  to  the  import  and  inherent  power  of  the  parental 
relation  itself,  as  constituted  by  God;  and  taking  the  same 
stand-point  that  I  have  taken,  advances  a  train  of  sentiments 
nearly  identical  with  the  sentiments  held  hi  my  '  Discourses.' 
Speaking  of  the  peculiar  ductility  of  childhood  he  says — 

"  The  conscience  is,  at  this  period,  exceedingly  tender  and  susceptible,  readily 
alarmed  by  the  apprehension  of  guilt,  and  prepared  to  contend  or  fly,  at  the 
approach  of  a  known  temptation.  All  the  affections  also  are  easily  moved, 
and  fitted  to  retain  permanently  and  often  indelibly  whatever  impressions  are 
made.  The  heart  is  soft,  gentle,  and  easily  won,  stongly  attached  by  kindness, 
peculiarly  to  the  parents  themselves.  To  every  amiable,  every  good  thing  it  is 
drawn,  comparatively,  without  trouble  or  resistance,  and  united  by  bonds  which 
no  future  art  or  force  can  dissolve.  Against  every  odious  and  bad  thing,  its 
opposition  is  with  equal  ease  excited  and  rendered  permanent.  Dwighfs  Theology, 
vol.  r.,  p.  131. 

He  insists  also  on  the  necessity  of  suiting  the  matter  of  reli- 
gious instruction  to  the  age  and  capacity  of  the  child,  not  only 
excluding,  as  I  ventured  to  do,  philosophic  and  theologic  forms 
of  doctrine,  but  even  declaring  that  "such  parts  only  of  the 
Scriptures  should  be  taught  at  any  time,  as  may  be  made  dis- 
tinctly intelligible."  He  deprecates  also  the  exceedingly  baleful 
effect  of  such  teachings  and  modes  of  treatment  as  make  the 
subject  of  religion  "  odious,"  or  present  it  "  in  a  gloomy  or  dis- 
couraging light." 


76  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

"In  this  mode  of  instruction,  children  are  kept  at  a  distance  from  religion, 
by  a  regular  repulsion,  and  scarcely  approach  so  near  as  to  learn  its  real  nature. 
Even  truth  itself  will,  to  them,  be  odious  truth.  Religion  will  be  dreaded  before 
it  is  known.  That  which  is  taught,  the  child  will  neither  love,  respect,  nor 
remember,  and  the  teacher's  own  example  of  its  influence,  will  complete  the 
alienation  his  precepts  began,  p.  138. 

There  are  manifestly  some  very  "dangerous  tendencies" in 
sentiments  like  these.  And  when  he  comes  to  propound  his 
doctrine  of  results,  showing  how  it  is  given  to  every  Christian 
parent  to  form  his  children  almost  without  fail  to  God,  the  laxity 
of  his  opinions  becomes  decidedly  alarming.  Under  the  text — 
Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old, 
he  will  not  depart  from  it — he  first  dissents  from  the  inference 
taken  by  some,  that  "  in  every  instance  a  child,  thus  educated, 
will  persevere  in  the  way  he  should  go,"  maintaining,  instead, 
the  opinion — 

"  That  God  intended  this  promise  as  a  direct  encouragement  to  parents  who 
should  be  faithful,  in  such  a  degree,  as  we  sometimes  see  exercised,  in  the 
education  of  children.  The  amount  of  the  promise  is,  that  their  children  will 
generally,  when  trained  up  in  the  way  they  should  go,  not  depart  from  it." 
p.  140,  '41. 

Varying  his  language,  he  says  again,  yet  more  definitely — 

"  If  we  train  up  children  in  the  way  they  should  go,  they  will  enter  it 
almost  of  course,  follow  us  to  heaven  and  be  our  companions  forever."  p.  145. 

To  substantiate  this  opinion,  he  goes  into  a  careful  examin- 
ation of  the  objection,  derived  from  the  apparent  failures  of 
good  men  in  training  their  children,  partly  denying  the  supposed 
facts,  partly  explaining  them  away,  and,  for  the  rest,  resolving 
them  into  the  neglects  and  wrongs  of  the  parents  themselves. 

I  am  not  aware  that  this  particular  subject  has  been  fully  and 
formally  discussed,  by  any  writer  of  repute,  since  the  days  of 
Dr.  D wight.  But  it  would  be  easy  to  cite,  from  a  hundred 
sources,  single  paragraphs  that  carry  the  same  opinion,  and 
would,  if  formally  developed,  expand  themselves  into  a  view 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  77 

systematically  correspondent.  Thus,  my  predecessor,  the 
lamented  Wilcox,  in  a  beautiful  sermon  on  the  "  Influence  of 
Education,"  says — 

"  Must  early  instruction  and  habit  go  for  nothing  in  Christianity  ?  Though 
men  are  never  made  Christians  in  heart,  merely  by  a  course  of  early  instruc- 
tion and  discipline,  independently  of  the  special  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
are  they  not  frequently  made  so,  by  a  course  in  connexion  with  such  influences  7 
And  would  they  not  uniformly  be.  if  the  instruction  and  discipline,  in  question, 
were  not  more  or  less  neglected  ?  Is  there  not  fullness  and  firmness  enough  in 
the  promise  of  God  to  furnish  ground  for  such  an  opinion  ?  Can  any  thing  be 
plainer  than  the  language,  '  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and 
when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it  ?'  Has  not  God  promised  to  bless 
the  means  of  grace,  when  they  are  faithfully  used  ?  Has  he  not,  by  a  partic- 
ular covenant,  given  such  a  promise  to  faithful  parents,  in  relation  to  their 
children  1  May  they  not  plead  that  covenant,  and,  when  they  are  unsuccessful 
in  their  plea,  is  it  not  because,  they  have  broken  their  part  of  this  covenant 
by  not  performing  their  whole  duty  ? "  Wilcox's  Remains,  p.  303. 

In  the  theology  of  Knapp,  a  text  book  translated  by  Dr. 
Woods,  Jr.,  and  in  general  repute  among  us  lor  candor  and 
orthodoxy,  the  author  discusses  very  cautiously  the  "  uses  and 
effects  of  infant  baptism,"  and  comes  to  the  following,  as  one  of 
his  conclusions : 

"  In  the  general  position  that  just  as  far  as  they  [baptized  children]  have 
subjective  capacity  and  as  soon  as  they  have  this,  God  will  work  in  them  that 
which  is  good  for  their  salvation,  there  is  not  only  nothing  unreasonable,  but  it  is 
altogether  rational  and  Scriptural.  It  is  also  certain  that  we  cannot  surely  tell 
how  soon,  or  in  what  way,  and  by  what  means,  this  subjective  capacity  may  be 
shown  and  developed."  fol.  11^  p.  538. 

Dr.  Woods,  of  Andover,  is  characteristically  cautious  on  this 
subject,  but  when  he  says  that  the  "  religious  character"  of  men 
is  "  commonly  derived"  from  their  parents,  it  is  difficult  to  see 
wherein  he  differs  from  what  I  have  asserted  concerning  the 
organic  power  of  the  parental  office,  save  that  he  has  employed 
language  less  precise  and  determinate.  Religious  character 
has  two  forms,  bad  and  good,  that  of  sin  and  that  of  faith.  And 

if  this  is  "  commonly  derived  from  parents,"  not  from  the  world 

7* 


78  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

without,  or  the  church  without,  (save  as  the  church  acts 
through  the  family,)  what  is  this  but  the  very  heresy  I  have 
asserted?  only  it  is  advanced  in  a  way  so  loose  and  general  that 
few  will  notice  the  real  import  of  the  language.  He  says — 

"  From  the  beginning  of  the  world,  the  character  and  condition  of  children 
have  generally  resulted  from  the  conduct  of  parents.  The  peculiar  character  of 
a  tribe  or  nation  has  commonly  been  derived  from  the  character  of  its  father 
or  head.  This  extends  to  the  religious  as  well  as  the  social  and  secular  charac- 
ter. The  history  of  the  Christian  church  shows  that  after  it  has  been  once 
established  in  any  place,  it  has  depended  for  its  continuance  and  increase, 
chiefly  upon  the  success  of  parents  in  promoting  the  piety  of  their  children, 
Infant  Baptism,  p.  30. 

Once  more,  and  the  latest  of  all,  Dr.  White,  Professor  of 
Theology  in  the  Theological  Seminary  of  New  York,  delivered, 
less  than  a  year  since,  before  the  synod  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey,  and  at  their  request,  a  discourse  on  the  Abra- 
hamic  covenant,  in  which  he  takes  the  same  ground  precisely 
with  Drs.  Hopkins  and  West :  viz.  that  when  the  covenant  en- 
gages "  I  will  be  a  God  to  thee  and  thy  seed  after  thee,"  the 
promise  is  equally  spiritual  in  both  the  members.  "  To  be  the 
God  oi'the  seed  of  Abraham  signifies  as  much  as  to  be  the  God 
of  Abraham.  The  promise  is  spiritual,  and  its  blessings  eter- 
nal." Then  carrying  out  his  doctrine  to  its  legitimate  results, 
he  says — 

"  It  is  the  duty  of  Christian  parents  to  train  up  their  children  strictly  in  the 
ways  of  virtue  ;  to  restrain  them  from  all  courses  of  immorality  and  sinful  and 
dangerous  pleasure,  and  to  cause  them  to  conform  their  lives  to  all  the  require- 
ments of  tke  Oospel.  Do  any  say  this  is  too  hard  a  requirement — they  cannot  do 
it  1  We  can  only  answer  them  here  by  saying,  it  is  their  duty.  God  will  strictly 
require  it  of  them,  and  will  admit  of  no  apology  to  justify  or  extenuate  their 
failures."  National  Preacher,  vol.  XX.,  p.  243,  and  253. 

Here  now,  lest  I  should  overburden  your  patience,  I  suspend 
the  citation  of  witnesses.  And  does  any  one  ask  for  what  pur- 
pose I  have  accumulated  such  a  roll  of  authorities  ?  Is  it  that 
I  propose  to  limit  myself  by  their  opinions,  or  shelter  myseli 


ON-  CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  79 

under  their  names?  Neither.  I  submit  to  no  human  limitation, 
I  ask  no  human  shelter.  Is  it  that  I  propose  to  silence  my 
censors  by  these  authorities  1  No ;  for  they  are  as  much  at 
liberty  as  I  am  to  dissent  from  the  doctrines  and  opinions  cited. 
What  then  ?  It  is  done,  I  answer,  that  I  may  bring  my  critics 
into  a  lair  dilemma,  and  require  it  of  them— either  to  confess 
their  ignorance,  and  such  a  measure  of  it  as  amounts  to  a  the- 
ologic  disqualification,  or  else  to  stand  convicted  of  knowingly 
raising  a  panic  against  the  best  and  most  respected  names,  not 
in  our  own  churches  only,  but  in  the  world.  Possibly  these 
distinguished  men  were  all  in  a  mistake,  and  possibly  I  am  in 
the  same.  That  was  a  fair  subject  of  discussion.  But  these 
censors  of  orthodoxy  have  done  more,  they  have  raised  an  out- 
cry, they  have  instigated  a  fright,  driving  you  thus  to  the  very 
extreme  measure  of  silencing  a  book!— in  which  it  turns  out 
that  they  have  been  stirring  up  their  fire  against  Baxter  and 
the  first  fathers  of  New  England,  against  Hopkins,  West, 
D wight,  and  I  know  not  how  many  others,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  ancient  church  itself,  as  understood  by  the  most  competent 
critics !  For  there  is  scarcely  a  point  in  my  tract  which  these 
high  authorities  are  not  seen  to  have  asserted,  or  an  objection 
by  themselves,  which  they  are  not  seen  to  have  refuted.  It  is 
made  clear,  also,  to  yourselves  as  a  committee,  and  I  should 
think  to  the  public  beside,  that  you  did  not  err  when  you  came 
to  the  deliberate  conclusion  that  there  was  no  such  breach  on 
received  opinions,  in  my  tract,  as  ought  to  disturb  the  peace  of 
the  churches.  What  right  had  you  to  judge  that  you  should 
set  on  fire  the  course  of  nature,  by  publishing  sentiments  accept- 
ed in  the  first  age,  and  maintained  by  the  best  men  in  the 
church?  And  now  what  opinion  will  you  have,  what  opinion 
will  all  sensible  men  have,  two  years  hence,  of  this  dismal  scene 
of  fatuity,  which  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eigh^ 
hundred  and  forty  seven,  has  so  infected  the  nerves  of  orthodox, 
Massachusetts  as  even  to  stop  the  press  of  their  Sabbath  School 
Society. 


80  ARGUMENT     FOR    DISCOURSES 

So  much  for  the  past.  I  will  now  endeavor  to  show  you  more 
briefly  the  relations  of  my  view  of  Christian  nurture  to  present 
opinion.  I  expressed  confidence,  in  the  "  Advertisement,"  that 
the  view  presented  is  "  inconsistent  with  no  scheme  of  doctrine 
generally  held  or  accepted,"  I  did  not  mean,  of  course,  that  I 
believed  every  and  all  such  schemes  myself,  or  that  I  had  not 
written  according  to  the  scheme  I  do  believe.  I  only  meant 
that  what  may  seem  to  be  peculiar,  in  the  view  given, — that 
the  child  is  to  be  trained  not  for  conversion  at  some  advanced 
age,  but  as  expected  to  "grow  up  a  Christian," — that  God 
offers  a  grace  to  make  it  possible,  and  justifies  a  presumption 
that  the  result  may  actually  be  realized ;  this,  I  meant  to  say, 
is  a  view  not  inconsistent  with  any  scheme  I  know,  whether  of 
depravity,  regeneration,  spiritual  influence,  or  election.  No 
matter  whether  depravity  is  inborn  damnable  sin,  or  whether 
as  guilty  the  guilt  is  only  the  demerit  of  our  own  exercises ;  no 
matter  whether  we  begin  to  sin  before  birth,  with  the  first 
breath,  or  only  after  years  have  passed  away ;  no  matter 
whether  our  sin  come  by  imputation,  or  blood,  or  social  conta- 
gion ;  take  what  scheme  you  will,  of  this  or  any  of  the  other 
doctrines  named,  and  my  view  of  Christian  nurture,  as  above 
stated,  may  be  easily  set  in  connexion  with  it,  and  adapted  into 
it  as  a  component  member.  This  I  meant  to  say,  and  this  I 
now  repeat.  Doubtless  it  will  fit  more  awkwardly  in  some  than 
in  others,  and  make  a  clumsier  figure;  for  probably  some  of  the 
schemes  are  clumsier  than  others,  and  more  difficult  to  marry 
with  what  is  reasonable  and  scriptural.  Still  there  is  not  any 
scheme  or  school  of  doctrine  current  among  us,  unless  it  be  a 
real  and  practical  antinomianism,  which  will  not  suffer,  with- 
out any  substantial  infringement,  the  view  of  Christian  nurture 
which  I  have  advanced.  This  I  affirm,  not  without  having 
made  the  experiment,  but  it  would  require  too  much  space  to 
verify  the  assertion  universally.  I  will  only  show  how  it  holds 
in  a  single  example.  Take  the  doctrine  (which  I  frankly  say  I 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  81 

do  not  hold). that  regeneration  is  accomplished  by  an  instant 
and  physical  act  of  God,  to  which  act  truth  and  all  endeavors 
in  the  subject  have  no  other  relation,  as  means  to  ends,  than  the 
ram's  horns  had  to  the  fall  of  Jericho.  Yet  that  instant,  isolated 
act  of  Omnipotence  may  fall  on  the  heart  of  infancy,  as  well  as 
of  adult  years,  and  God  may  give  us  reason  to  expect  it.  Nay, 
it  is  this  very  scheme,  which  professes  that  God  sometimes 
regenerates  men  when  they  are  asleep  !  Wherein  is  it  incred- 
ible, therefore,  that  God  should  regenerate  infancy  before  it  is 
awake?  This  too  was  the  very  scheme  of  regeneration  held 
by  Dr.  Hopkins,  who  also  maintained,  as  we  have  seen,  that 
parents  may  as  "  really  and  effectually  transmit  holiness  as  ex- 
istence to  their  children."  And  who  of  these  defenders  of  the 
faith  will  rise  up  to  show  that  Dr.  Hopkins  was  a  man  who  did 
not  know  the  logical  connexions  of  his  own  opinions. 

But  I  did  not  draw  up  this  scheme  of  nurture  to  meet  the 
uses  or  gratify  the  opinions  of  any  sect.  It  is  a  first  maxim 
with  me,  as  I  think  it  should  be  in  this  age  of  every  one  who 
pretends  to  think  at  all,  to  reach  after  the  most  comprehensive 
form  of  truth  possible ;  to  see  how  far  I  may  dissolve  into  unity, 
in  the  views  I  present,  the  conflicting  opinions  by  which  men  are 
divided,  giving  them  back  all  which  they  are  after,  in  a  form 
which  they  can  accept  together.  And  the  fortune  of  my  little 
book  is,  in  this  view,  remarkable,  though  not  a  surprise  to  my- 
self. This  will  appear  as  I  glance  at  the  relations  of  my  doctrine 
to  the  religious  posture  of  some  of  the  principal  denominations 
of  Christians.  I  begin  with — 

THE  BAPTISTS.  I  did  not  suppose  that  what  I  had  advanced 
would  be  acceptable,  at  first,  to  them,  and  they  have  spoken  of 
my  tract  as  only  they  could,  retaining  their  position ;  save  that 
they  have  been  a  little  more  violent  and  contemptuous,  in  one 
or  two  instances,  than  was  necessary.  At  the  same  time  1  have 
heard  of  more  than  one  minister  of  that  denomination  candidly 
allowing  that  my  doctrine  of  organic  character  as  opposed  to 
the  rigid  individualism  of  the  times,  was  a  view  of  the  subject 


82  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

which  had  greatly  affected  his  mind.  There  certainly  is  little 
reason  to  wonder  that  the  Baptists  should  reject  infant  baptism, 
when  we  hold  it  ourselves  only  as  a  dead  tradition,  separated 
from  any  rational  meaning  or  use.  And  if  we  stand  upon  the 
footing  of  absolute  individualism,  it  follows  irresistibly,  as  any 
child  may  see,  that  they  are  right  in  requiring  evidence  of  actual 
faith  previous  to  baptism.  1  have  shown  them  how  they  may 
accommodate  all  their  rational  scruples  and  yet  accept  this  rite. 
And  perhaps  it  may  not  be  indelicate  to  allude  to  my  own  men- 
tal experience.  ^At  the  time  of  my  settlement  in  the  ministry, 
the  council  came  near  rejecting  me  because  I  could  say  nothing 
more  positive  concerning  infant  baptism.  After  two  or  three 
years  of  reflection,  I  came  upon  the  discovery  that  all  my  views 
of  Christian  nurture  were  radically  defective  and  even  false. 
And  now  what  before  was  dark  or  even  absurd,  immediately 
became  luminous  and  dignified — a  rite  the  most  beautiful  and 
appropriate  of  all  the  ordinances  of  God.  And  when  our  Bap- 
tist brethren  can  .take  up  this  view  of  Christian  nurture,  I  think 
they  will  discover  that,  while  we  have  been  in  as  great  error  as 
they — perhaps  even  greater  because  of  our  inconsistency — God 
has  yet  saved  us  a  rite,  which  may  be  as  true  a  comfort  and  as 
rich  a  blessing  to  themselves  as  to  us. 

CONGREGATIONALISTS.  Inasmuch  as  the  relation  of  my  view 
of  Christian  nurture  to  these  is  the  matter  now  in  question,  I 
only  notice  here  the  fact  that  a  Congregational  paper  in  Maine, 
and  another  in  Vermont,  both  journals  in  the  highest  repute 
for  character,  have  noticed  my  tract  with  favor.  This  too  they 
have  done  since  the  attention  of  the  public  has  been  distinctly 
called  to  its  errors,  by  the  attacks  made  upon  it.  And  they  are 
moved  to  this,  if  I  may  judge,  by  their  regard,  not  for  novelty, 
but  for  an  older  antiquity ;  for  the  practical  aim  of  the  '  Dis- 
courses' is  really  in  much  closer  sympathy  with  the  Christian 
methods  of  high  Calvinism,  in  days  gone  bye,  than  it  is  with 
the  desultory  and  dry  individualism  of  our  new  light  orthodoxy. 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  83 

EPISCOPALIANS.  How  the  view  of  Christian  nurture.which  • 
I  have  presented  differs  from  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regen- 
eration, as  held  in  the  Episcopal  church,  is  sufficiently  explained 
on  pages  33  and  34  of"  the  '  Discourses.'  Probably  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  use  the  language  of  the  prayer  book,  as  meaning  only 
what  I  have  asserted  to  be  the  true  idea  of  baptism  as  connected 
with  regeneration.  And  many,  I  presume,  do  use  it  only  in  this 
or  in  a  similar  meaning ;  regarding  the  rite  as  signifying  a  pre- 
sumptive regeneration  and  nothing  more.  Whether  this  can 
be  done  so  as  to  justify  the  historic  meaning  of  the  language  is 
more  doubtful;  for  it  is  a  fact  known  to  all  that  the  rite  of  bap- 
tism had  been  regarded  in  former  ages  as  having  a  peculiar 
sacramental  or  magical  power,  and  was  understood  to  convey 
a  grace  immediately  to  the  subject,  washing  away  his  sins  and 
setting  him  in  a  regenerate  state  ;  and  the  language  of  the 
prayer  book  I  suppose  represents  this  opinion.  Still  it  is  an 

undoubted  truth,  in  our  view  of  the  subiecfthat  baptism,  being 

\^r 

a  rite  of  God,  as  the  church  is  a  school  or  temple  of  God  and  all 
together  a  form  or  body  for  the  inhabitation  of  the  Spirit,  the 
rite  must,  in  some  sense  and  degree,  be  a  vehicle  of  grace  ;  just 
as  all  other  forms  are  vehicles.  And  since  it  was  originally  set 
in  the  church,  as  a  type  of  regeneration,  it  is  so  to  be  held  and 
applied.'  Soon  after  my  tract  was  published,  it  was  carefully 
and  very  candidly  noticed  in  the  Episcopal  paper  of  this  city, 
and  with,  at  least,  qualified  favor.  The  writer  was  particularly 
gratified  by  the  recognition  made  of  an  organic  power  and  the 
opposition  avowed  to  that  extreme  individualism  so  prevalent 
in  our  notions  of  piety.  He  considered  this  an  indirect  compli- 
ment to  the  style  of  opinion  held  in  his  own  church,  and  was  a 
little  disposed  to  complain  that  while  I  had  drawn  facts  to  illus- 
trate my  doctrine  from  many  other  and  distant  sources,  I  had 
made  no  reference  to  the  Episcopal  church  always  close  at 
hand.  To  excuse  any  such  appearance  of  prejudice,  I  ought 
perhaps  to  say  that  I  had  not  been  able,  by  observation,  to  con- 
vince myself  that  the  children  educated  in  the  Episcopal  church- 


84  ARGUMENT  FOR   DISCOURSES 

es  tur^  out  better,  as  regards  moral  and  Christian  character, 
than  our  own.  Indeed  I  had  this  fact,  real  or  supposed,  before 
me  to  resist  my  theory.  And  I  accounted  for  the  fact,  by  ob- 
serving that,  while  Episcopacy  is  right  in  avoiding  our  extreme 
individualism,  it  does  so  by  absorbing  the  family  in  a  boundless, 
unsparing  churchism:  ^Now  it  is  the  family  pre-eminently  that 
God  has  prepared  tcMse  the  church  of  childhood.  Here  is 
located  the  true  organic  power,  that  which  under  God,  is  to 
fashion  the  child  to  a  Christian  life.  He  must  grow  up  as  an 
olive  plant  at  the  table,  and  drink  in,  through  the  spirit  of  the 
house,  the  spirit  of  piety.  It  is  not  enough  therefore  to  avoid 
individualism,  unless  we  accept  instead  the  organic  power 
which  God  has  ,set  in  most  intimate  and  proper  connexion 
with  childhood;  L 

GERMAN  REFORMED.  We  have  here  another  phase  of  reli- 
gious opinion  and  of  Christian  organization.  To  look  at  our- 
selves, from  this  yet  more  foreign  point  of  view,  will  instruct 
us,  but  this  I  shall  do  more  at  large,  in  another  connexion.  I 
only  acknowledge  here  an  able  review  of  my  '  Discourses'  con- 
tinued through  four  numbers  of  a  weekly  journal,  in  which  my 
distinction  between  organic  character  and  individualism  is 
earnestly  approved.  The  real  import  and  importance  of  the 
distinction  are  seized  upon,  and  it  is  treated,  not  as  a  conceit 
or  trick  of  language,  but  as  a  solid  and  earnest  truth,  which 
foretokens,  in  the  writer's  opinion,  a  final  remedy  of  that  which 
is  the  great  defect  of  Puritanism — in  which  however  the  author 
js  partially  at  fault,  for  it  is  not  so  much  the  defect  of  Puritan- 
ism, as  of  the  new  light  form  of  it,  introduced  only  a  hundred 
years  ago. 

UNITARIANS.  Since  my  tract  was  published,  it  has  been  signi- 
fied to  me  privately  that  I  have  done  the  Unitarians  injustice 
in  the  paragraph  (p.  15,  16,)  where  allusion  is  made  to  them.  I 
have  been  assured  that  they  do  not  consider  it  to  be  the  work 
of  Christian  education  "  to  educate  or  educe  the  good  that  is  in 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  85 

us."  It  was  not  my  design  to  misrepresent  them,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult in  so  great  diversity  of  sentiment,  to  ascertain,  with  any 
precision,  what  may  properly  be  attributed  to  them.  That 
there  is  a  susceptibility  to  good,  in  every  mind,  fallen  though  it 
be,  is  to  me  beyond  a  reasonable  question.  The  soul  has  that 
within  it,  which  may  be  appealed  to  by  what  is  right  and  holy. 
It  can  feel  the  beauty  of  truth,  only  not  as  when  practically 
embraced.  God  is  to  it  a  lovely  being,  lovely  in  all  the  points 
of  his  character  and  government,  only  not  loved.  The  mind 
also  has  ideals  revealed  in  itself  that  are  even  celestial  and  it  is 
the  strongest  of  all  proofs  of  its  depr.avity  that,  when  it  would 
struggle  up  towards  its  own  ideals,  it  cannot  reach  them ;  can- 
not, as  apart  from  God,  even  lift  itself  towards  them.  Now 
this  capacity  or  susceptibility  to  good,  I  have  supposed  the 
Unitarians  to  consider  as  good  in  itself,  that  is  morally  good, 
deserving  or  meritorious.  That  I  have  often  seen  language  of 
this  kind  I  am  certain.  I  dissent  from  it,  as  I  would  from  the 
inference  that  one  is  a  friend  of  truth,  because  he  has  a  percep- 
tive power  for  the  truth?  There  is  not  and  really  can  be  no 
proper  goodness  in  a  soul,  till  it  practically  embraces,  as  its 
final  end  and  law,  and  thus  becomes  united  to  the  right,  or  what 
is  the  same  to  God  and  the  principles  of  God.  Previously  to 
this,  the  power  we  have  to  feel  the  right  and  be  attracted  by 
the  good  is  only  the  more  conclusive  proof  of  depravity,  inas- 
much as  we  are  found  to  reject  what  we  mentally  approve,  and 
to  mortify  the  noblest  wants  of  our  being.  And  the  moment  we 
withdraw  our  mind,  in  such  a  case,  from  the  simple  attitude  of 
contemplation,  to  reflect  upon  our  own  guilty  unlikenessto  God, 
or  remind  ourselves  of  laws  and  constraints  which  we  still  de- 
sign to  violate,  then  also  will  be  discovered  the  possibility  of 
hating  what  we  feel  to  be  lovely,  and,  in  fact,  that  no  enmity 
is  so  truly  bitter,  as  that  which  wrong  feels  towards  the  desecra- 
ted goodness  of  its  object. 

I  observe  that  a  certain  school,  at  least,  of  Unitarians,  have 
somewhat  warmly  espoused  my  little  book  since  its  publication 


86  ARGUMENT   FOR    DISCOURSES 

was  suspended,  and  this,  I  perceive,  is  to  many  a  note  of  appall- 
ing import  against  me ;  for  nothing  surely  can  be  less  than  a 
pestilent  error  which  any  Unitarian  will  approve  !  Indeed  there 
are  some  such,  whether  in  your  committee  or  not  I  cannot  say, 
who  would  probably  renounce  their  own  faith  at  once,  if  they 
saw  a  Unitarian  even  so  much  as  meditating  an  assent  to  it. 
If  you  suffer  at  all  this  kind  of  infirmity,  would  it  not  be  well  to 
employ  a  Unitarian  committee,  who  may  pass  upon  the  manu- 
scripts you  have  before  you,  and  then  what  they  approve  you 
will  certainly  know  that  you  ought  to  reject !  Meantime  I  can 
only  say,  for  myself,  that  it  gives  me  unfeigned  pleasure  to  find 
myself  approved  by  the  Unitarians,  and  I  hope  they  may  be 
able  to  approve,  in  like  manner,  every  sentiment  I  may  here- 
after publish.  Indeed  I  sincerely  rejoice  that  their  approbation 
was  signified,  before  my  tract  was  suspended,  wherein  it  is 
shown  beyond  dispute,  that  they  approve  it  for  the  sentiments, 
and  no  one  can  say  that  they  do  it  from  any  antagonistic  or 
party  motive.  And  since  my  nerves  are  equal  to  it,  I  will  go 
farther  and  confess  that  I  had  a  secret  hope  beforehand  of 
carrying  the  assent  of  the  Unitarians ;  that,  in  drawing  out  my 
view  of  depravity  as  connected  with  organic  character,  and 
also  in  speaking  of  what  I  supposed  to  be  their  theory  of  educa- 
tion, I  did  seek  to  present  the  truth  in  such  a  way  that  all  their 
objections  might  be  obviated.  I  know  not  that  any  of  their  own 
writers  have  presented  views  that  are  similar.  If  they  have, 
then  I  accept  them.  If  they  have  not,  I  certainly  shall  not  re- 
nounce the  truth,  if  I  have  been  so  happy,  after  a  quarter  of  a 
century  of  debate  and  quarrel,  as  finally  to  present  a  view  of  it, 
in  which  they  are  able  to  rest;  much  less  when  high  Calvinism 
is  able  to  rest  in  it  too,  in  company  with  evangelic  Episcopacy, 
and  I  know  not  how  many  of  the  Christian  families  beside.  In- 
deed it  is  my  felicity  that,  while  your  committee  are  deploring 
probably  the  stigma  suffered  in  publishing  a  book  that  Unitari- 
ans can  accept,  I  am  congratulating  myself  in  the  fact  that  I 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  87 

have  been  able  to  present  a  great  practical  subject,  involving 
so  many  difficult  and  contested  points  in  theology,  in  a  manner 
so  comprehensive,  as  to  carry  at  least,  the  qualified  assent  of 
many  Christian  denominations.  I  should  even  be  false  to  my 
own  aims  and  principles  not  to  hail  the  result  with  unfeigned 
joy.  Neither  let  the  public  be  too  easily  frightened  by  the  suc- 
cess of  a  catholic  effort.  And  if  the  bats  and  beetles,  scared  by 
so  strange  a  sign,  begin  to  flutter  wildly,  as  if  the  elemental 
darkness  they  inhabit  were  in  danger,  it  is  not  best  to  be  alarm- 
ed on  that  account ;  for  it  is  not  they  who  rule  the  world  any 
more  than  it  is  they  who  understand  it. 

Such  alarm,  brethren  of  the  Committee,  you  have  suffered 
with  a  good  deal  more  of  facility,  it  seems  to  me,  than  was 
necessary.  No  word  ol* complaint  against  my  tract  had  you 
heard,  till  you  heard  it  from  Connecticut.  None  have  you  yet 
heard,  probably,  save  in  voices  that  are  only  echoes  of  the 
alarm  from  Connecticut.  Pardon  me  now,  if  1  suggest  that, 
representing  the  ministers  and  Christians  of  Massachusetts, 
you  really  do  us  much  greater  honor  than  we  deserve.  So 
great  honor  that  we  are  obliged  to  smile  at  your  expense. 
That  you,  a  numerous  and  respectable  committee,  after  having 
come  to  a  serious  and  careful  decision  on  my  '  Discourses,'  a 
decision  manured  by  six  months  of  deliberation,  should  have 
turned  pale  and  recanted,  at  the  first  note  of  disapprobation 
from  Connecticut,  is,  to  say  the  least,  more  than  we  could  have 
expected.  We  are  even  amazed  at  the  spell  we  have  wrought 
on  your  judgments,  and  can  hardly  believe  what  we  have  done 
ourselves. 

We  have  a  little  institution  sworn,  every  six  months,  to  suffer 
no  progress,  also  to  maintain  the  new  light  doctrine  as  equiva- 
lent to  all  antiquity,  and  probably  fulfilling  its  oaths  with  reli- 
gious fidelity — therefore  certain,  as  we  suppose  you  will  see, 
to  condemn  others  with  as  little  reason  as  it  is  permitted  to 
exercise  for  itself.  It  has  three  professors  and  twelve  or  fifteen 
students,  and  calls  off  one  or  two  ministers  from  their  charge. 


88  ARGUMENT   FOR    DISCOURSES 

a  considerable  part  of  the  time,  to  gather  up  the  requisite  funds. 
To  maintain  its  hold  of  public  favor,  it  is  obliged  of  course  to  do 
something  more  positive  than  to  evince  its  repugnance  to  pro- 
gress, by  a  regular  diminution  of  its  own  numbers ;  and  since 
the  turning  out  of  four  or  five  young  preachers  a  y  ear  is  no 
such  rate  of  propagation,  as  justifies  the  heavy  expense  of  three 
salaries,  it  must  make  up  the  deficit  and  keep  the  public  apprized 
of  its  existence,  in  some  other  way.  That  such  an  institution 
suffers  many  severe  alarms  for  the  truth,  busies  itself  in  a 
general  censorship,  becomes  first  an  annoyance  and  finally  a  sub- 
ject of  mirth,  is  well  understood  in  Connecticut,  and  without  any 
report  from  us,  you  can  easily  show  yourselves,  out  of  the  facts, 
that  so  it  will  be.  You  will  even  anticipate,  without  any  notes 
of  history  from  me,  acts  of  private  meddling  that  disturb  good 
neighborhood  and  discourage  the  most  conciliatory  purposes. 
Or  if  I  were  to  show  you  this  same  institution  acting  the  part  of 
a  scavenger,  three  or  four  years  ago,  to  a  Baptist  paper,  then 
engaged  in  an  assault  upon  my  character,  where  of  course  I 
must  be  silent,  sending  in  its  anonymous  communications  to 
help  on  the  attack ;  representing  moreover  that  this  present  is 
the  third  or  fourth  public  assault  I  have  suffered  from  the  same 
quarter,  which,  if  I  were  to  answer,  it  would  be  the  first  time 
that  I  have  troubled  them  with  a  word — this  you  might  not  know 
beforehand,  but  it  ought  not  in  the  least  to  surprise  you.  For 
no  matter  how  much  you  may  rely  on  the  character  of  the  men ; 
a  band  of  angels,  subjected  to  such  terms  of  existence,  would 
have  need  to  pray,  "lead  us  not  into  temptation."  In  saying 
thus  much,  I  do  not  conceive  that  I  attack  the  motives  of  the 
worthy  professors  of  this  institution.  I  only  do  my  duty  to  you, 
by  reminding  you  how  far  good  men  are  swayed  by  causes  back 
of  their  consciousness  and  under  even  a  great  appearance  of 
fairness.  An  institution  that  is  organized  against  the  age  and 
the  ordinances  of  heaven,  has  more  to  do  than  any  thing  human 
ever  did  or  can  do,  and  is  therefore  under  a  perpetual  induce- 
ment to  the  doing  of  what  no  man  ought ;  in  other  words,  it  is, 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  89 

in  itself,  a  most  "dangerous  tendency."  Indeed  there  is  no 
monastic  order,  under  vows  ot'mendicancy,  that  will  more  surely 
sink  itself,  at  last,  into  a  public  annoyance  and  become  a  by- 
word, than  a  Protestant  Theological  Seminary  that  is  driven 
to  meddle  in  all  ways  with  the  churches  of  God,  to  support  a 
precarious  existence.* 

But  what  is  to  be  done,  it  may  be  asked,  with  the  more 
specific  charges  against  my  tract ;  for  as  yet  they  are  not  an- 
ewer^d  ?  It  would  be  somewhat  strange,  I  reply,  after  the  his- 
torical view  just  given,  if  I  did  not  indulge  a  degree  of  confidence 
that  I  have  my  adversaries  already  in  my  power.  Pardon  me 
if  I  have  not  been  able,  as  yet,  to  bring  myself  thoroughly  into 
the  defensive  mood  in  this  article,  and  especially  as  I  seem  to 
have  a  work  on  hand  that  is  more  positive  and  significant  than 
self  vindication.  Besides  there  are  reasons  in  the  matter  of 
these  attacks,  that  discourage  any  attempt  to  offer  a  formal 
answer. 

First  of  all,  they  depend,  for  the  most  part,  as  regards  any 
show  of  argument,  on  a  certain  theory  of  depravity  and  regen- 
eration that  was  debated,  to  the  complete  satisfaction  of  the 
public,  some  fifteen  years  ago,  and,  as  I  believe,  forever  explo- 
ded. According  to  this  theory  the  human  race  hate  God  in- 
stinctively, and  must  hate  him  the  more,  the  more  clearly  his 
character  is  seen,  until  after  a  certain  divine  stroke  or  ictus 
reverses  the  instinct,  when  love  results  as  hatred  did  before. 
Many  whom  1  really  respect  still  linger  under  this  ictic  theory, 
and  if  they  choose  to  discuss  it  and  reason  from  it  I  have  no 
objection.  But  for  me  to  go  back  and  wade  through  this  worn 
out  question,  to  vindicate  myself  against  objections  from  a  doc- 
trine as  distant  from  me  as  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and 
shortly  to  be  as  distant  from  the  world — really  it  is  more  than  I 
can  undertake.  Let  it  suffice  that  Dr.  Hopkins,  who  held  sub- 

*  See  Note  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

8* 


90  ARGUMENT  FOR  DISCOURSES 

stantially  this  same  theory,  was  able  to  connect  it  with  the 
eame  scheme  of 'nurture,  which  I  have  advanced.  ]f  my  adver- 
saries will  do  the  same,  I  am  content  to  suffer  what  judgment 
they  please  to  inflict  Meantime  the  excellent  man  whom  I 
have  brought  under  sentence  as  a  "Pharisee,"  because  he  was 
not  regenerated  according  to  the  ictic  theory,  who  did  not  hate 
sufficiently  and  loved  God  without  a  preliminary  contest,  being 
quite  surprised  by  his  glory, — he  too,  doubtless,  though  he  can- 
not pass  the  theologic  censors  below,  will  be  able  to  hold  some 
confidence  still  that  he  may  pass  the  more  discriminative,  as 
well  as  milder  tribunal  above. 

In  the  next  place,  the  most  effective  points  that  are  made 
against  my  '  Discourses,'  are  made  so,  only  by  the  misrepre- 
sentations of  the  critics  themselves,  and  these  misrepresenta- 
tions are  so  interwoven  with  all  their  arguments  against  me, 
that  I  am  discouraged  from  any  attempt  to  answer  them ;  for 
I  see  beforehand  that  the  same  treatment,  practiced  against 
my  answer,  will  turn  that  also  into  the  same  confusion,  and 
since  I  have  no  hope  of  being  permitted  to  stand  before  the 
public  in  my  own  opinions,  unless  I  go  on  to  reclaim  and  re- 
assert what  is  taken  from  me  till  misrepresentation  is  out  of 
breath,  I  may  as  well  submit  first  as  last.  Manifestly  there 
could  be  no  end  but  exhaustion  to  an  argument  thus  conducted. 
That  I  have  reason  for  such  a  determination  you  will  see  from 
two  or  three  examples. 

And  first,  I  invite  you  to  take  my  tract  and  see  whether  I 
condense  without  distortion,  the  passage  found  on  pages  £  to 
.  t$,  so  that,  having  the  whole  before  us,  we  may  judge  what  it 
means. 

"  You  say  that  you  have  tried  to  realise  the  very  scheme  of 
Christian  nurture  I  am  proposing,  how  then  can  it  be  true, 
when  your  children  seem  intractable  to  religion,  and  sometimes 
display  an  aversion  to  the  subject  ?"  I  answer  distinctly  in  the 
four  considerations  that  follow. 

1.  Your  children  may  have  seeds  of  holy  principle  in  them 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  91 

which  you  do  not  discover,  just  as  probably  adults  sometimes  do. 

2.  The  church  of  God,  whose  office  it  is  to  co-operate  and  bear 
apart  of  the  responsibility  with  you,  may  not  have  done  it,  but 
may  have  actually  hindered  your  success. 

3.  You  may  not  have  been  as  faithful  as  you  suppose,  or  as 
healthful  in  your  example. 

4.  You  must  not  assume  that  our  style  of  piety,  in  this  age, 
is  such  as  will  allow  us  to  reali/e  the  best  results. 

Looking  over,  now,  this  passage  thus  condensed,  but  not  more 
clearly  stated  than  it  is  in  the  '  Discourses,'  ask  yourselves 
whether  it  teaches  that  Christian  parents  are  to  lake  it  for 
granted  that  their  children  are  pious  ?  Next  see  how  it  is  made 
to  convey  this  lesson. 

The  critic  comes  and  sticks  on  a  preface  thus — "  There  are 
many  parents  who  are  eminently  pious,  and  whose  piety  shines 
in  nothing  more  conspicuously  than  in  the  education  of  their 
children.  But  they  see  no  evidence,  &c.  *  *  To  such 
you  say" — 

To  such  I  did  not  say.  I  was  addressing  only  Christians  of 
ordinary  fidelity  and  such,  in  fact,  as  I  actually  and  expressly 
conjectured,  may  have  failed  of  success  by  their  own  delinquen- 
cies ;  and  every  reader  will  see  that  my  censor  has  begun  by 
fabricating  for  himself  and  the  public  a  new  aim  or  purpose,  by 
which  the  whole  import  of^ny  words  is  changed.  A  case  is 
thus  made  out  for  me,  in  which  I  am  compelled  by  my  own 
principles  to  believe  that  there  must  be  sonie  real  success,  even 
despite  of  contrary  evidence ;  whereas  it  will  be  clear  to  the 
reader  that  I  am  supposing  not  actual  success  only,  but  quite  as 
much,  actual  want  of  success,  and  the  latter  for  sufficient  rea- 
sons. If  I  had  written  my  name  on  a  sheet  of  paper,  and  this 
critic  had  then  written  a  note  of  hand  over  it,  he  would  not  have 
committed  a  worse  violation  of  my  rights,  and  the  rights  of  the 
public,  than  he  has  done  by  this  little  preface.  But  the  preface 
is  added,  and  the  public  mind  is  thus  prepared  to  see  it  made 


92  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

out  that  Christians  are  authorized,  of  necessity,  to  presume  on 
the  spiritual  renovation  of  their  children,  without  any,  or  even 
against  the  most  decisive  contrary  evidence.  B  it  there  comes 
a  difficulty.  Nos.  2,  3,  and  4,  suggest  other  solutions  of  the 
question  or  objection  proposed  by  the  parents,  viz.  that  there 
may  be  no  place  for  such  a  presumption,  and  that  some  fault  of 
theirs,  or  of  the  church,  or  the  mis-shapen  piety  of  the  age  will 
account  for  it.  What  now  shall  be  done  with  these  three  sug- 
gestions ?  If  the  proposed  extravagance  is  to  be  fixed  upon  me, 
there  is  evidently  no  other  way  of  success  but  to  cast  out  these 
and  make  nothing  of  them !  But  we  come  back  to  No.  1,  and 
here  is  a  difficulty.  The  language  is  potential,  ("  may  have") 
it  only  declares  a  possibility.  But  harder  things  are  already 
surmounted  than  the  changing  of  a  possibility  into  a  positive 
affirmation!  and  nothing  now  remains  for  my  censors  but  to 
ask — "  Are  Christian  parents  to  presume  that  their  children  are 
pious,  when  they  give  not  the  least  evidence  of  the  fact,  when 
they  manifest  aversion  to  the  subject  of  religion  itself?"  And 
a  few  pages  further  on,  he  draws  out  of  much  the  same  material, 
a  like  conclusion,  to  be  taken  by  the  child;  and,  that  I  may  see 
the  absurdity  of  my  doctrine,  allows  me  to  hear  myself  address- 
ing the  child  in  a  sermon  of  encouragement  thus:  "If  your 
parents  are  truly  pious  and  faithful,  you  have  a  right  to  pre- 
sume that  you  have  been  born  aga,in,  although  neither  you  nor 
your  parents  can  as  yet  discern  any  evidences  of  a  renewed 
heart"!  A  very  serious  account  has  any  man  to  meet,  who 
wrongs  the  public  by  throwing  thus  into  confusion  salutary  and 
healthful  doctrine,  and  practices  on  the  fears  of  the  timorous,  by 
warning  them  of  poisons  he  has  himself  injected. 

Take  a  second  example  of  misrepresentation.  I  had  referred 
to  the  Germans,  giving  them  credit  for  a  degree  of  "  religious 
feeling"  and  a  savor  of  "  Christian  piety"  exceeding,  perhaps, 
what  the-  truth  will  justify.  I  know  them  only  by  report  and 
some  of  my  friends  assure  me  that  I  have  judged  them  too  favor- 
ably. And  yet  I  see  not  how  they  can  make  sure  of  it ;  for  I 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  93 

made  their  religious  character  "  remarkable"  only  as  contrasted 
with  the  " looseness1'  and  the  "pernicious  error"  prevalent  in 
their  "  pulpits,"  so  that  if  the  error  be  very  great  and  very  per- 
nicious, as  I  certainly  thought  it  to  be,  then  it  would  be  remark" 
able — which  was  the  very  thought  I  had — if  there  were  any 
piety  left  among  them.  I  cited  their  case,  accordingly,  to  show 
what  power  there  is  in  a  scheme  of  education,  even  partially 
right,  when  all  other  means  are  adverse.  Then  passing  on  I 
alluded  to  a  declaration,  I  had  often  seen  in  literary  disquisitions 
on  the  Germans,  that  "they  are  a  people  religious  by  nature." 
This  I  contradicted  thus — "  Whereas  the  strong  religious  bent 
they  manifest  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  under  a  form  of 
treatment  that  expects  them  to  be  religious,  and  are  not  dis- 
couraged by  the  demand  of  an  experience  above  their  years." 
And  now  after  publishing  these  very  words,  our  Professor 
goes  directly  on  to  read  me  a  sanctimonious  lecture,  on  saying 
that  the  Germans  are  7-eligious  by  nature.  "  And  suppose  they 
are  religious  by  nature,"  <&c. ! — holding  me  up  to  the  public  as 
actually  asserting,  what  I  was  only  denying  or  resolving  into 
other  causes ! 

As  a  third  example  of  unpardonable  misconstruction,  take 
the  following.  I  had  spoken  of  discovering,  in  the  relation  of 
parent  and  child,  "  something  like  a  law  of  organic  connexion, 
as  regards  character,  between  them"— "perhaps  such  a  con- 
nexion as  induces  the  conviction  that  the  character  of  one  is 
included  in  that  of  the  other,  as  a  seed  is  formed  in  the  capsule," 
&c.  These  forms  of  expression  are  referred  to  and  then  the 
critic  says,  disregarding  the  words  in  italics, — "  I  would  serious- 
ly ask,  whether  those  who  are  children  of  God  are  not  [on  this 
supposition,]  '  born  of  blood  ?'  "  As  if  I  had  been  speaking  here 
only  of  a  vascular  connexion  !  Now  if  it  were  the  method  of 
accomplished  theologians  to  hold  up  propositions  to  the  ear  and 
try  them  by  the  sound,  and  then,  if  they  do  not  sound  orthodox, 
to  lay  an  argument  against  them,  I  should  suspect  that  I  had 
fallen  under  some  such  test  here.  What  had  I  said  about  this 


94  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

"  organic  connexion  ?"  Obviously  it  was  something  predicable 
of  a  time  "after  birth,"  when  the  "physical  separation"  was 
complete,  and  the  vascular  connexion  terminated,  (vide  Dis- 
courses, p.  17-22.)  Follow  my  words  through  these  pages, 
with  only  ordinary  attention, and  you  will  perceive  that  I  setup 
the  term  "organic"  to  contrast  in  idea  with  "individual," 
both  as  theologic  or  metaphysical  terms,  not  as  physical.  Two 
modes  of  being  are  thus  distinguished.  Some  would  call  them 
perhaps  the  passive  and  the  active,  though  with  less  exactness. 
For  just  as  a  seed  grows  and  has  its  life  in  the  parent  stem, 
then,  as  it  matures  and  ripens,  separates  imperceptibly,  to  be  a 
complete  form  of  life  in  itself,  so  the  child  is  at  first  acted  in  by 
the  parental  will  and  cast  in  the  molds  of  parental  feeling  and 
character ;  until  finally  his  will  being  developed,  he  becomes  a 
complete  cause  in  himself,  "acts  from  himself"  as  the  theolo- 
gians say,  and  is  a  proper  individual — the  agent  of  his  own 
character,  and  thus  a  subject  of  blame  or  praise.  But  this 
change  takes  place  gradually,  the  parent  stem  being  less  and  less 
efficient  in  the  seed,  till  finally  it  falls  ofl'to  be  a  seed  by  itself. 
I  take  now  the  actings  of  the  parent  in  the  child,  both  before 
and  after  birth,  for  as  far  as  the  child's  will  or  individuality  are 
concerned,  they  are  included  in  the  same  category  of  passivity, 
and  cover  them  both  by  the  same  term,  calling  them  "  org<  nic? 
Considering  next  this  organic  power  as  inhabited  by  Christ 
and  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  exalted  thus  into  a  spiritual  state 
above  itself,  I  take  my  stand  at  the  birth  point  of  the  will,  (not 
of  the  body,)  and  there  I  say  that  the  Christian  child  ought  to 
emerge  into  individuality,  not  as  ripened  into  sin  and  set  off  in 
it,  but  as  one  that  is  regenerated,  quickened  unto  spiritual  life. 
In  other  words,  it  is  the  privilege  of  the  Christian,  not  that  he  is 
doomed  to  give  birth  to  a  tainted  life  and  cease,  but  that  by  the 
grace  of  God,  dwelling  in  him  and  in  the  child,  fashioning  his 
own  character  as  an  organic  mold  for  the  child,  and  the  child  to 
a  plastic  conformity  with  the  mold  provided,  he  may  set  forth 
the  child  into  life  asaseed  afterldm — one  that  is  prepared  unto 


ON   CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  95 

a  godly  life  by  causes  prior  to  his  own  will ;  that  is,  by  causes 
metaphysically  organic.  Thus  every  thing  previous  to  the  will 
falls  into  one  and  the  same  category.  No  matter  whether  it 
come  through  vascular  connexion,  or  parental  handling  and 
control,  it  comes  to  the  child.  I  said,  "  just  as  naturally  and  by 
a  law  as  truly  organic"  (i.  e.  just  as  truly  from  without  his  own 
will)  "  as  when  the  sap  of  a  trunk  flows  into  a  limb."  At  some 
time,  sooner  or  later,  but  only  by  a  gradual  transition,  he  comes 
into  his  own  will,  which,  theologically  speaking,  is  the  time  of 
his  birth  as  a  moral  subject  of  God's  government ;  arid  if  he 
takes  up  life  as  a  corrupted  subject,  so  he  may  and  ought  also 
to  take  it  up  as  a  renewed  subject — that  is  to  grow  up  as  a 
Christian.  Now  instead  of  pausing  to  inquire  whether,  dissolv- 
ing thus  all  the  doctrines  of  depravity  held  by  all  the  sects,  and 
drawing  out  another  form  of  doctrine,  I  had  not  succeeded  in 
saving  what  makes  each  venerable  opinion  true  to  itself,  and 
removing  the  objections  of  those  who  object,  generalizing  too 
the  doctrines  both  of  grace  and  depravity,  so  as  to  bring  them 
into  the  same  organic  laws  and  present  to  Christian  nurture  the 
true  idea,  that  which  makes  it  Christian— instead  of  this  it  is 
"  seriously"  asked  whether  I  do  not  teach  that  children  brought 
up  in  Christ  are  born  of  blood  ! 

Now  I  do  not  say  that  these  misrepresentations  are  wickedly 
designed.  I  cannot  properly  say  that  they  originate  in  inexpli- 
cable dullness.  Let  the  public  account  for  them  as  they  can. 
To  go  into  a  formal  controversy  where  I  shall  have  so  much 
work  upon  my  hands  that  is  not  argument,  I  must  respectfully 
decline.  And  happily  for  me,  I  may  turn  to  a  critic  of  another 
cast,  whose  objections  even  are  a  refreshment,  because  they 
are  intelligent. 

In  four  successive  numbers  of  the  Weekly  Messenger,  a  paper 
of  the  German  Reformed  church,  published  in  Chambersburg, 
Pa.,  I  find  a  long  and  careful  review  of  my  '  Discourses,'  occu- 


96  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

pying  in  all,  eight  or  ten  columns  of  the  paper.  The  articles 
signed  J.  W.  N.  are  said  to  be  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Nevin.  And 
now  since  he  has  set  forth  an  objection  to  my  view  in  the  tract, 
which  my  other  censors  would  like  probably  to  have  advanced 
themselves,  it  will  be  more  satisfactory  1  presume  to  the  public, 
if)  turning  to  the  objection  he  has  alleged,  I  show  in  what  man- 
ner it  fails  to  hold  as  against  me. 

This  writer  enters  fully  into  the  distinction  I  have  drawn 
between  organic  and  individual  agency  in  religion.  He  sees 
the  vast  import  of  the  distinction,  and  sees,  withal,  how  it  pro- 
poses a  remedy  for  that  which  is  the  real  and  sad  infirmity  of 
our  present  style  of  religion.  Obviously  the  distinction  itself,  in 
this  shape  or  some  other,  is  familiar  to  him.  "  The  whole  con- 
stitution of  the  world,"  he  says,  "  contradicts  the  unit  or  atom 
theory  of  religion.  Humanity  is  not  an  aggregate,  but  an  or- 
ganic whole,  manifold  and  one  at  the  same  time.  The  whole 
man,  soul  and  body,  exists  in  organic  union  with  his  race." 
This  for  the  natural  constitution  of  things.  He  describes  also 
the  "  atomic  theory  of  religion,  or  what  I  have  here  called  the 
"  ictic  theory,"  as  an  attempt  to  realize  the  supernatural,  in 
which — 

"  It  is  assumed  that  the  new  creation  holds  no  continuous  historical  connexion 
with  the  order  of  the  world,  in  its  natural  form.  It  is  related  to  this,  only  in  an 
abrupt,  outward  way,  without  coming  to  any  actual  organic  union  with  it,  in  the 
form  of  life.  The  supernatural  is  regarded  as  something  altogether  abstract. 
Grace  is  a  mere  influence  from  the  other  world,  made  to  reach  over  to  its  subject, 
by  a  sort  of  divine  magic.  It  becomes  identical  thus  in  the  end  with  the  idea  of 
religious  experience.  All  is  subjective  ;  and  so  the  theory  runs  out  practically,  at 
last  into  a  system  of  rank  individualism,  in  which  religion  comes  to  be  viewed  as 
an  original,  independent  concern,  in  every  case,  between  man  and  his  Maker." 

The  development  of  this  precise  style  of 'religion  he  considers, 
with  me,  to  be  the  great  misfortune  of  Puritanism  as  seen  in  the 
history  of  New  England.  In  a  word,  it  has  made  us  all  Bap- 
tists in  theory,  which  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  we  ought  to  be 
in  fact.  Thus  far  he  agrees  with  me. 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  97 

But  in  his  third  article,  he  most  "earnestly  dissents"  from 
what  he  considers  to  be  a  dangerous  error,  into  which  I  have 
fallen :  viz.  that,  while  I  seem  to  admit  in  words  the  depravity 
of  the  race  and  the  necessity  of  a  supernatural  grace  to  restore 
us,  I  do  yet  seem  effectually  to  dispense  with  both ;  presenting 
a  "  theory  of  educational  piety  on  the  constitution  of  nature, 
rather  than  upon  the  constitution  of  grace  as  a  strictly  super: 
natural  system."  In  other  words,  the  argument  is  "  rational- 
istic." In  the  article  which  alleges  this  objection,  he  feels  his 
way  cautiously  through  my  language,  and  rather  seems  to  find 
than  positively  to  find  the  truth  of  it.  But  in  the  concluding 
article,  in  which  he  shows  how  a  "  defective  view  of  the  church" 
has  left  me  on  the  ground  of  rationalism,  he  becomes  positive 
and  decided,  as  to  the  pertinence  of  his  objection. 

It  is  most  unfortunate,  if  1  have  left  room  for  this  truly  serious 
objection.  For  so  far  from  holding  the  possibility  of  restoration 
for  men  within  the  terms  of  mere  nature,  whether,  as  regards 
the  individual  acting  for  himself,  or  the  parent  acting  for  his 
child,  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  himself  is  not,  as  I  be 
lieve,  more  truly  supernatural  than  any  agency  must  be,  which 
regenerates  a  soul.  Whether  I  could  assent  to  all  which  this 
reviewer  means  by  "  the  church, ''"and"  the  sacramental  grace" 
of  baptism,  is  doubtful.  And  when  he  says  of  the  church — "  She 
makes  us  Christians,  by  the  sacrament  of  holy  baptism,  which 
she  always  held  to  be  of  supernatural  force  for  this  very  pur- 
pose," I  am  still  further  in  doubt.  But  to  the  following  I  most 
heartily  assent,  and  since  it  gives  so  happily  the  sentiments  I 
hold,  on  the  point  in  question,  I  transfer  it  to  my  pages : 

"  Christianity  is  in  one  view,  as  I  have  said  before,  the  perfection  of  nature. 
Its  relation  to  the  world  is  never,  as  the  sect  spirit  assumes,  abrupt,  violent, 
fantastic,  or  magical.  Chri.-it  came  truly  in  the  flesh,  and  his  Church  is  in  the 
flesh  still.  But  he  came,  at  the  same  time,  as  a  true  real  revelation  of  a  higher  life 
in  the  world  ;  a  life  that  was  not  in  it  before ;  a  life  that  has  been  in  it  always 
since,  and  according  to  his  own  promise  will  be  so  always  to  the  end  of  time. 
Christianity  then,  is  not  the  mere  constitution  of  nature,  as  it  stood  before,  but 


98  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

the  fact  of  a  divine,  supernatural  constitution,  incorporated  with  the  course  of 
nature,  by  means  of  the  Church.  To  question  this,  is  to  question  the  fact  of  the 
incarnation  itself,  and  involves  the  very  essence  of  rationalism.  The  Church 
accordingly  is  the  proper  object  of  faith,  (as  >nthe  Creed,)  no  less  than  the  person 
of  the  theanthropic  Saviour  himself.  To  resolve  it  into  the  laws  of  our  common 
life,  is  infidelity  in  disguise.  At  the  same  time,  its  whole  constitution  is  in  har- 
mony with  the  laws  of  this  life.  It  it  the  supernatural  in  human  natural  form. 
The  higher  life  of  the  Church  is  the  life  of  humanity  itself.  exaKed  into  its  own 
proper  sphere.  The  new  creation  theij  carries  out  and  completes  the  sense  of 
the  old  creation.  It  is  the  old  organism  still,  with  all  its  original  necessary  laics  ; 
only  lifted  into  a  higher  order  of  existence.  Such  as  it  is,  however,  its  results 
spring  not  from  the  flesh,  as  such,  but  from  the  presence  of  supernatural  power 
and  resources  made  permanent  in  the  flesh  by  Jesus  Christ ;  and  we  might  as 
well  pretend  to  reduce  the  miracles  of  healing  which  Christ  once  wrought,  to  the 
general  category  of  animal  magnetism,  as  undertake  to  resolve  the  objective  grace 
of  the  Church  into  the  action  of  laws  that  begin  and  end  with  the  constitution  of 
our  human  nature  in  its  common  form.' 

Admirably  said  and  true  in  every  syllable !  unless  when  he 
says  "  incorporated  by  means  of  the  Church  ;"  though  a  sense 
may  be  found  even  for  that,  which  puts  it  beyond  objection. 
But  if  we  take  this  view,  so  ably  set  forth  in  the  extract  here 
given,  it  follows,  of  course,  that  the  Christian  family  and  its 
organic  laws  are  all  penetrated  by  the  supernatural  element, 
and  as  the  family  is  closer  about  the  child,  and  touches  him  in 
points  more  numerous,  and  ways  more  sovereign  over  charac- 
ter, "  the  church  that  is  in  the  house"  has  a  great  deal  more  to 
do  with  him,  in  the  first  years  of  his  life,  than  the  church  uni- 
versal, or  any  public  sacrament. 

If  now  the  question  be  raised,  how  my  reviewer  was  led  to 
take  up  an  impression  so  directly  opposite  to  my  real  senti- 
ments, it  was  due  perhaps  in  part  to  my  misfortune,  and  also 
in  part,  I  must  think,  to  some  defect  of  attention  in  him.  It 
was  my  misfortune  that  all  the  language  of  supernaturalism,  I 
might  wish  to  employ,  was  already  preoccupied  by  that  super- 
supernaturalism  which  he  has  described,  and  the  "  fantastic" 
impressions  connected  with  the  same.  In  order,  therefore,  to 
bring  in  spirit  and  redemption  from  their  isolation,  and  set 
them  in  contact  with  the  organic  laws  of  nature,  I  was  obliged 


ON  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE.  99 

to  lean,  as  decidedly  as  the  truth  would  suffer,  to  naturalistic 
language,  and  to  set  my  whole  subject  in  a  naturalistic  atti- 
tude. 

Thus  there  are  two  modes  of  viewing  this  whole  subject, 
both  equally  correct,  but  not  equally  apposite  to  my  particular 
purposes.  And  the  two  have  about  the  same  relation  to  each 
other  that  the  rainbow,  as  a  positive  institution,  has  to  the 
rainbow,  as  a  product  of  the  world's  laws.  If  I  take  my  posi- 
tion by  the  covenant  of  Abraham  and  hang  my  doctrine  of  nur- 
ture on  that,  as  a  positive  institution,  or,  what  is  the  same,  on 
its  promises ;  if  then  I  contemplate  God  as  coming  in  by  his 
spirit  from  a  point  of  isolation  above,  in  answer  to  prayer,  or 
without,  to  work  in  the  child's  heart,  whether  by  a  divine 
stroke  or  ictus  apart  from  all.  connexion  of  cause  and  conse- 
quence or  not,  the  change  called  regeneration,  and  thus  to  fulfill 
the  promise ;  I  realize  indeed  a  form  of  unquestionable  super- 
naturalism,  in  the  mind  of  those  who  accept  my  doctrine,  but  it 
is  likely  to  be  as  far  as  possible  from  the  reviewer's  idea,  of 
"  the  supernatural  in  human  natural  form."  For  all  the  words 
I  have  used  will  have  settled  into  a  meaning  proper  only  to 
religious  individualism.  Now  just  as  the  reality  of  the  rainbow 
is  m  the  world's  laws  prior  to  the  covenant  with  Noah,  so  there 
is,  in  the  organic  laws  of  the  race,  a  reality  or  ground  answer- 
ing to  the  covenant  with  Abraham ;  only,  in  this  latter  case,  the 
reality  is  a  supernatural  grace  which  inhabits  the  organic  laws 
of  nature  and  works  its  results  in  conformity  with  them.  So 
every  intelligent  writer  understands.  Thus  Dr.  Woods,  on  the 
covenant  of  Abraham,  says,  summing  up  its  import :  "  ll  was 
a  system  of  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION."  That  is,  the  covenant  had, 
or  was  to  have  its  reality,  in  the  powers  incorporated  in  life — 
in  treatment,  example,  instruction,  government. 

If  I  had  handled  my  subject  wholly  within  the  first  form,  or 
under  the  type  of  the  covenant  as  a  positive  institution,  I  pre- 
sume I  should  have  found  a  much  readier  assent,  and  that  for 


100  ARGUMENT   FOR  DISCOURSES 

the  very  reason  that  I  had  thrown  my  grounds  of  expectation 
for  Christian  nurture  the  other  side  of  the  fixed  stars,  where- 
by the  parent  himself  is  delivered  from  all  connexion  with  the 
results,  and  from  all  responsibility  concerning  them.  He  will 
reverently  acknowledge  that  he  has  imparted  a  mold  of  deprav- 
ity, but  the  laws  of  connexion  between  him  and  his  child  are 
operative,  he  thinks,  only  for  this  bad  purpose.  If  any  good 
comes  to  the  child,  it  must  come  straight  down  from  the  island 
occupied  by  Jehovah,  to  the  child  as  an  individual,  and  does 
not,  in  its  coming,  take  the  organic  laws  of  parental  character 
on  its  way  to  regenerate  and  sanctify  them  as  its  vehicle.  As 
regards  a  remedy  for  individualism,  little  is  gained,  even  if  the 
doctrine  that  children  ought  to  be  trained  up  in  the  way  they 
should  go  is  believed ;  for  there  is  no  effectual  or  sufficient  rem- 
edy, till  the  laws  of  grace  are  seen  to  be  perfectly  coinci- 
dent with  the  organic  laws  of  depravity.  Therefore  it  was 
necessary  to  keep  to  the  naturalistic  form.  But  I  meant  to 
interpose  all  the  safeguards  necessary  to  save  myself  from 
proper  naturalism,  and  I  supposed  that  I  had  done  it.  I  really 
think  so  now.  The  very  first  sentence  of  my  tract  is  a  decla- 
ration of  supernaturalism.  I  find  too  that,  in  as  many  as  thir- 
teen distinct  passages,  I  have  used  language  that  has  no  pro- 
per signification  at  all,  unless  it  carries  the  idea,  either  of  a 
supernatural  redemption,  or  of  a  want  that  requires  it.  I  refer 
to  four  which  ought  to  satisfy  the  most  distrustful,  p.  15,  16. 
22.  23,4.  43-5. 

If  I  may  judge,  it  was  over  the  first  named  passage,  p.  15,16. 
that  my  reviewer  settled  into  the  unfortunate  construction  of 
my  tract  implied  in  his  objection.  After  drawing  out  a  view 
of  "  natural  pravity"  communicated  under  the  organic  laws  of 
the  family,  asserted  in  the  Scriptures,  and  evidenced  by  the 
scientific  deductions  of  physiology,  it  occurred  to  me  that  it 
might  be  well  to  throw  in  a  suggestion,  that  would  satisfy  a 
common  Unitarian  objection ;  viz.  that  this  subjection  to  or- 
ganic mischief  is  a  harsh  and  therefore  incredible  arrangement. 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  101 

Therefore  I  went  on  to  say  that  "  if  neither  Scripture  nor  phy- 
siology taught  us  the  doctrine,  or  if  we  were  born  clear  of  all 
damage,"  still  there  is  back  of  all  a  kind  of  subjective  moral 
necessity  that  man  should  make  an  experiment  of  sin,  in  order 
to  become  finally  established  in  holiness.  Whether  this  is 
true,  is  not  now  the  question.  But  the  reviewer  does  not  no- 
tice that  this  suggestion  is  added  hypothetically  and  not  to 
exclude,  or  at  all  modify  the  belief  imposed  by  Scripture  and 
physiology.  He  then  recollects  that  the  disciples  of  the  He- 
gelian theology  in  Germany,  and  Daub  in  particular,  reason 
in  a  similar  way  concerning  the  necessity  of  sin,  and  as  they 
go  directly  on,  representing  that  there  is,  in  the  very  struggle 
of  humanity  with  evil,  a  law  of  self  rectification,  so  that  nature 
will  assuredly  bring  herself  out  clear  at  last,  he  allows  himself 
to  believe  that  I  pass  to  the  same  result  with  them ;  whereas, 
according  to  the  view  I  gave,  it  is  not  sin  only  that  is  wanted 
and  must  come  as  an  experiment,  but  sin  as  a  bondage,  a 
fall ;  for  any  sin,  even  but  one,  involves  a  fall,  that  is  a  sub- 
jection to  evil ;  the  very  thing  denied  or  overlooked  by  the 
school  alluded  to.  And  it  was  with  a  particular  design  to  ex- 
clude the  error  they  hold,  that  I  brought  in  the  words  "fall 
and  bondage  under  the  laws  of  evil," — "  a  fall  and  rescue," — 
"passed  round  the  corner  of  full  and  redemption."  And 
what  do  theologians  understand  by  a  fall  and  a  bondage  under 
the  laws  of  evil,  but  that  evil,  once  entering  a  soul,  becomes  its 
master;  so  that  it  cannot  deliver  itself— therefore  that  a  rescue 
must  come,  a  redemption  must  be  undertaken,  by  a  power 
transcending  nature.  My  reviewer  threw  these  very  words 
into  italics  himself,  as  if  he  had  a  question  over  them,  but  lor 
some  reason  he  could  not  allow  them  to  have  their  only  proper 
significance. 

My  reviewer  entertains  a  conviction  that  I  have  fallen  into 
this  error,  by  not  properly  observing  the  distinction  "  between 
principle  or  ground  and  mere  occasion  or  condition.'1''  And  if 
I  rightly  understand  him,  he  means  to  say  that  the  organic 


102  ARGUMEA7T    FOR    DISCOURSES 

laws  in  which  we  both  agree  are  only  occasional  conditt  >ns 
under  which  depravity  and  spiritual  life  are  developed,  and  that 
"  back  of  all"  development  there  must  be  a  "  principle  or  germ" 
to  be  developed — an  evil  germ,  and  then,  irom  some  supernat- 
ural source,  a  good  germ.  I  can  hold  such  a  distinction  with- 
out difficulty,  but  I  see  no  place  for  it  here  ;  for  in  this  sense  of 
the  word  principle  the  soul  is  itself  the  principle  developed, 
and  the  good  or  evil,  separate  or  mixed,  is  the  development. 
Or  if  we  go  back  to  the  first  sin,  calling  that  the  germ  of  all 
evil,  still,  if  we  understand  ourselves,  we  shall  observe  that  we 
use  the  term  with  no  propriety  save  as  a  mere  figure  of  speech, 
to  denote  the  reproductive  quality  of  sin,  or  the  certainty  that, 
taken  simply  as  a  development,  it  will  be  followed  by  other  sins. 
That  first  sin,  call  it  a  germ  or  not,  is  only  a  development  of 
the  soul  as  a  substantive  creature,  and  all  the  other  sins  that 
follow  the  germ  (figurative)  are  only  developments.  And  my 
reviewer  ought  so  to  understand,  when  he  speaks  of  a  germ 
or  principle,  as  that  which  contains  "the  plastic  law,  that 
which  determines  the  interior  form  and  type  "  of  the  develop- 
ment. Thus,  in  the  body,  it  is  the  life  principle  that  contains 
the  plastic  law  of  the  fever,  and  the  fever  is  only  that  malig- 
nant presence  by  which  the  vital  force  is  disturbed.  In  the 
same  manner  sin  is  no  germ,  save  in  a  figure,  and  the  real 
germ  is  the  soul  itself.  So  also  it  is  the  soul's  nature  that  con- 
tains the  plastic  form  or  mold,  through  which  the  truth  and 
Spirit  of  God  operate  a  good  lite;  lor  this  is  only  a  good  devel- 
opment, and  if  we  speak  of  a  ri^rht  life  afterwards  as  proceed- 
ing from  a  new  germ  or  .jeed,  as  the  Scriptures  do,  it  is  a  fig- 
ure of  speech.  Otherwise,  or  if  some  new  germ  must  be  insert- 
ed in  the  soul  from  without,  my  reviewer  would  fall  out  of  his 
own  doctrine  and  take  his  place  side  by  side  virtually  with  those 
who  hold  the  ictic  theory. 

There  is  no  happier  term  to  be  employed  in  this  very  ab- 
struse and  difficult  matter,  than  the  old  orthodox  term  "  effec- 
tual calling."  The  ;ubject,  after  he  has  come  into  union  with 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  103 

God,  is  not  the  same  man  with  a  new  germ  inserted,  but  the 
same  man  effectually  called,  i.  e.  "  persuaded  and  enabled  to 
embrace  Jesus  Christ  freely  offered."  And  I  do  not  under- 
stand that  the  phrase  "renewing  our  wills,"  used  in  this  con- 
nexion by  the  Westminster  Assembly,  was  intended  to  imply 
that  the  subject  has  any  different  will  inserted,  substantively 
speaking,  from  what  he  had  before,  or  that  the  action  of  the 
old  will  is  renewed  by  any  direct  interference  of  power  as 
power.  It  is  only  moved  persuasively  to  a  new  and  better  con- 
sent, and  settled  therein,  by  a  new  and  gracious  development 
of  the  moral  affections.  In  my  tract,  I  represented  Christian 
virtue  as  a  status  or  state  of  being,  that  is,  a  position  or  dis- 
position, or  what  is  the  same,  a  development  of  the  man,  into 
which  being  brought,  he  naturally  goes  on  to  develop  himself 
freely  in  what  is  right,  as  before  in  wrong.  Then  if  we  ask  how 
this  status  or  state  was  developed,  we  have  occasional  causes 
to  speak  of  and  main  causes,  objective  and  subjective  causes, 
organic  and  individual  causes,  plastic  and  voluntary  causes, 
intellectual  and  emotional  causes,  natural  laws  acting  as  natu- 
ral laws,  and  natural  laws  inhabited  by  supernatural  agencies — 
all  concurring  and  struggling  with  as  great  a  variety  of  oppo- 
sing causes,  but  resulting,  finally,  in  the  given  state  as  an 
effectual  calling;  but  exactly  how  and  by  what  measures  of  op- 
eration, no  human  mind,  I  am  sure  can  ever  fully  distinguish. 
Some  things,  however,  we  can  say,  and  especially  that  the 
Spirit  of  God,  as  a  supernatural  power,  is  the  necessary  cause 
and  spring,  without  which,  concurrent  in  all,  and  wielding  all, 
the  state  in  question  could  never  be  attained  to.  Still  the  germ 
thus  developed  is  the  soul  itself,  not  some  other  germ  inserted. 
r-^Andwhen  we  come  to  the  case  of  the  child,  who  I  have  said  ' 
pu'ght  to  STI.:W  upas  a  Christian,  and  not  to  be  trained  up  for 
future  conversion,  1  must  mean,  of  course,  that  there  is  a  dis_ 
pensation  of  the  Spirit  for  all  ages ;  one  appropriate  to  the 
adult,  and  one  appropriate  to  the  rudimental  and  unreflective 
age  previous  to  moral  action.  And  here,  during  the  period  in 


104  ARGUMENT   FOR    DISCOURSES 

which  the  child  is  wholly  or  principally  subject  to  organic  laws, 
the  problem  is  to  prepare  him  to  such  a  status  or  disposed- 
ness,  that  he  will  set  off,  when  he  comes  to  his  proper  individ- 
uality, as  a  true  disciple.  This,  to  the  child,  is  his  effectual 
calling.  If  I  say  that  the  result  comes  to  pass  in  virtue  of  the 
parental  character  and  treatment  as  an  organic  power ;  it  is 
only  in  the  certainty  that  this  character  and  treatment  are 
themselves  products  of  a  supernatural  grace,  wielded  also  by 
a  supernatural  graeA  and  attended  by  the  same  working  in 
the  child  or  subject,  (pan  it  be  said  that,  in  maintaining  a  view 
like  this,  I  deny,  or  at  all  bring  into  jeopardy  any  important 
Christian  truth  ? 

I  have  followed  my  reviewer  into  these  objections,  not  for 
the  purpose  of  self  vindication — he  regards  himself  rather  as 
favoring  than  as  condemning,  in  general,  the  position  I  have 
taken,  and  I  accept  his  objections  as  cordially  as  I  do  his  ap- 
probation— but  I  have  done  it,  that  I  may  be  able,  in  the  hand- 
ling of  some  view  intelligently  opposed  to  me,  to  develope  more 
fully  and  distinctly  my  own  doctrine.  There  may  still  be  many, 
who  will  hesitate  to  receive  all  my  conclusions,  though  few, 
I  am  quite  sure,  will  any  longer  suspect  my  view  of  Christian 
nurture  as  one  that  involves  dangerous  error. 

At  the  same  time,  it  will  be  seen,  for  I  desire  to  hang  out 
no  false  colors,  that  while  I  was  careful  in  the  '  Discourses'  to 
advance  nothing  of  importance,  which  I  knew  to  be  irreconcil- 
able with  doctrinal  views  held  by  any  theologic  school  among 
us,  I  do,  i.i  my  p.-e^ent  article,  declare  opinions  that  certainly 
cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  views  of  many,  especially  those 
who  are  maintaining,  as  ancient,  the  new  light  opinions  of  the 
last  century.  I  hope  my  frankness  now  will  gain  me  a  degree 
of  confidence,  which  I  failed  to  secure  by  reserve  and  caution 
before.  Meantime,  as  it  would  be  far  more  respectable  for  the 
churches,  and  quite  as  pleasant  to  me  that,  when  an  alarm  is 
raised,  it  should  have  some  intelligent  reference  to  errors  ad- 
vanced, I  suggest  to  those  who  have  been  so  unfortunate  here 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  105 

as  to  miss  their  occasion,  that  now  is  the  time  when  a  panic 
ought  immediately  to  begin. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  while  an  Episcopal  notice  of  my  un- 
fortunate tract,  and  another  from  the  German  Reformed 
church,  have  readily  entered  into  my  distinction  between  the 
organic  and  the  individual,  in  character — showing,  I  think, 
that  probably  it  is  not  absolute  nonsense — I  have  seen  no  evi- 
dence, in  any  of  the  printed  notices  from  our  own  Congrega- 
tional press,  that  the  distinction  has  entered,  as  yet,  the  mind 
of  a  single  reader.  So  glued  is  our  mental  habit  to  the  impres- 
sion that  religious  character  is  wholly  the  result  of  choice  in 
the  individual ;  or  if  it  be  generated  by  a  divine  ictus,  preceded, 
of  absolute  necessity,  by  convictions  and  struggles  that  are 
possible  only  to  the  reflective  age,  that  we  cannot  really  con- 
ceive the  meaning,  when  the  possibility  is  distinctly  stated  that 
a  child  should  be  prepared  unto  God,  by  causes  prior  to  his  own 
will.  I  also  represented  it  to  be  the  prevalent  view  of  Chris- 
tian nurture,  that  the  child  is  to  be  trained  up  for  future  con- 
version, when  he  is  ripe  enough  in  sin  to  have  a  conscious  bat- 
tle with  it,  and  this  my  critics  complain  of;  but  they  are  found, 
I  observe,  within  less  than  a  page,  to  set  forth  in  some  shape 
this  very  opinion,  and  thus  to  certify  the  truth  of  my  repre- 
sentations ! 

Many  persons  seem  never  to  have  brought  their  minds  down 
close  enough  to  an  infant  child  to  understand  that  any  thing 
of  consequence  is  going  on  with  it,  until  after  it  has  come  to 
language  and  become  a  subject  thus  of  instruction.  As  if  a 
child  were  to  learn  a  language  before  it  is  capable  of  learn- 
ing any  thing  I  Whereas  there  is  a  whole  era,  so  to  speak, 
before  language,  which  may  be  called  the  era  of  impressions, 
and  these  impressions  are  the  seminal  principles,  in  some  sense, 
of  the  activity  thp*runs  to  language,  and  also  of  the  whole  fu- 
ture character,  ff  strongly  suspect  that  more  is  done,  in  the  age 
previous  to  language,  to  affect  the  character  of  children.whether 


106  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

by  parents,  or,  when  they  are  waiting  in  indolent  security,  by 
nurses  and  attendants,  than  in  all  the  instruction  and  disci- 
pline of  their  minority  afterwards ;  for,  in  this  first  age,  the 
age  of  impressions,  there  goes  out  in  the  whole  manner  of  the 
parent — the  look,  the  voice,  the  handling — an  expression  of 
feeling,  and  that  feeling  expressed  streams  directly  into  the 

*  soul,  and  reproduces  itself  there,  as  by  a  law  of  contagion.  - 
What  man  of  adult  age,  who  is  at  all  observant  of  himself,  has 
failed  to  notice  the  power  that  lies  in  a  simple  presence,  even 
to  him?  To  this  power  the  infant  is  passive,  as  wax  to 
the  seal.  When,  therefore,  we  consider  how  small  a  speck, 
falling  into  the  nucleus  of  a  crystal,  may  disturb  its  form ;  or 
how  even  a  mote  of  foreign  matter,  present  in  the  quickening 
egg,  will  suffice  to  produce  a  deformity ;  considering,  also,  oil 
the  other  hand,  what  nice  conditions  of  repose,  in  one  case, 
and  what  accurately  modulated  supplies  of  heat,  in  the  other, 
are  necessary  to  a  perfect  product ;  then  only  do  we  begin  to 
imagine  what  work  is  going  on  in  the  soul  of  a  child  during  the 
age  of  impressions.  Suppose  now  that  all  preachers  of  Christ 
could  have  their  hearers,  for  whole  months,  in  their  own  will, 
after  the  same  manner,  so  as  to  move  -them  by  a  look,  a  mo- 
tion, a  smile,  a  frown,  and  act  their  own  sentiments  and  emo- 
tions over  in  them;  and  then,  for  whole  years,  had  them  in 
authority  to  command,  direct,  tell  them  whither  to  go,  what 
to  learn,  what  to  do,  regulate  their  hours,  their  books,  their 
pleasures,  and  their  company,  and  call  them  to  prayer  over 
their  own  knees  every  night  and  morning,  who  that  can  rightly 
conceive  such  an  organic  acting  of  one  being  in  many,  will 

,  deem  it  extravagant,  or  think  it  a  dishonor  to  the  grace  of 
God,  to  say  that  a  power  like  this  may  well  be  expected  to 
fashion  all  who  come  under  it  to  newness  of  life? 

Now  what  I  have  endeavored,  in  my  tract,  and  what  I  here 
endeavor  is  to  waken,  in  our  churches,  a  sense  of  this  power 
and  of  the  momentous  responsibilities  that  accrue  under  it.  I 


ON    CHRISTIAN   NURTURE.  ]Q7 

wish  to  produce  an  impression  that  God  has  not  held  us  respon- 
sible for  the  effect  only  of  what  we  do,  or  teach,  or  for  acts 
of  control  and  government ;  but  quite  as  much,  for  the  effect 
of  our  being  what  we  are;  that  there  is  a  plastic  age  in  the 
house,  receiving  its  type,  not  from  our  words  but  from  our 
spirit,  one  whose  character  is  shaping  in  the  molds  of  our  own. 
And  then,  under  an  impression  so  salutary,  what  changes  will 
be  wrought  in  the  temperament  of  our  own  piety.  If  a  man 
were  to  be  set  before  a  mirror,  with  the  feeling  that  *he  exact 
image  of  what  he  is,  for  the  day,  is  there  to  be  produced  and 
left  as  a  permanent  and  fixed  image  forever,  to  what  care- 
fulness, what  delicate  sincerity  of  spirit  would  he  be  moved. 
And  will  he  be  less  moved  to  the  same,  when  that  mirror  is 
the  soul  of  his  child  ? 

This  now  is  the  new  element  that  we  want  in  our  religion, 
and  this  I  earnestly  hope  may  be  received.  The  simple  in- 
troduction of  this,  while  it  destroys  nothing  valuable  in  our 
present  form  of  piety,  would  suffice  to  change  the  style  of  it 
in  all  the  points  where  it  is  defective ;  to  moisten  the  dry  in~ 
dividualism  we  Buffer,  to  relieve  the  eccentricities  we  display, 
to  set  purity  in  the  place  of  bustle  and  presumption,  growth 
in  the  place  of  conquest,  sound  health  in  the  place  of  spasmodic 
exaltations ;  for  when  a  conviction  is  felt  in  Christian  families, 
that  they  are  to  some  extent  organic  unities,  where  the  chil- 
dren are  not  to  grow  up  as  heathens,  to  be  converted  after- 
wards, but  in  the  faith  of  the  parents  rather  ;  where  living  is 
to  be  a  means  of  grace,  and  as  God  will  suffer  it,  a  regene- 
rating power ;  then  will  our  piety  become  a-  domestic  spirit,  and 
as  much  more  tender,  as  it  is  more  inclusive  of  the  family. 
Now  we  have  a  style  of  religion  that  contains,  practically 
speaking,  only  adults,  or  those  who  are  old  enough  to  reflect 
and  act  for  themselves,  and  it  is  as  if  we  lived  in  an  adult 
world,  where  every  one  is  for  himself.  If  we  could  abolish 
also  distinctions  of  age,  and  sex,  and  office,  we  should  only 


108  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

make  up  a  style  of  religion  somewhat  drier  and  farther  off 
from  nature  than  we  now  have.  We  can  never  come  into 
the  true  style  of  living  that  God  has  appointed  for  us,  until 
we  regard  each  generation  as  hovering  over  the  next,  acting 
itself  into  the  next,  and  casting  thus  a  type  of  character  in  the 
next,  before  it  comes  to  act  for  itself.  Then  we  shall  have 
gentle  cares  and  feelings;  then  the  families  will  become  bonds 
of  spiritual  life;  example,  education  and  government,  being 
Christian  powers,  will  be  regulated  by  a  Christian  spirit ;  the 
rigidities  of  religious  principle  will  be  softened  by  the  tender 
affections  of  nature  twining  among  them,  and  the  common  life 
of  the  house  dignified  by  the  sober  and  momentous  cares  of  the 
life  to  come.  And  thus  Christian  piety  being  oftener  a  habit  in 
the  soul  than  a  conquest  over  it,  will  be  as  much  more  respect- 
able and  consistent  as  it  is  earlier  in  the  birth  and  closer  to 
nature. 

The  more  I  reflect  on  the  particular  type  of  practical  reli- 
gion, prevalent  in  our  churches,  for  the  century  now  past,  the 
more  dissatisfied  I  am  with  it.  We  do  not  seem  to  under- 
stand that  there  is  a  law  of  population  within  the  church  of 
God,  as  there  is  within  a  nation  or  an  empire — one  which,  if 
children  were  only  brought  up  in  the  faith,  would  give  a  far 
more  rapid  increase  than  we  now  have,  and  finally  would,  by 
itself,  enable  the  church  to  overpopulate  and  occupy  the 
world,  as  the  Saxon  race  are  occupying  this  western  conti- 
nent. No  addition  meets  our  view,  which  does  not  come  as  a 
conquest. 

And  revivals  of  religion,  so  called,  are  our  scenes  of  con- 
quest— valued  of  course  according  to  the  hopes  rested  on  their 
power.  Let  me  not  be  understood  as  rejecting  revivals  of  reli- 
gion, though  I  heartily  wish  the  name  were  yet  to  be  in  vented; 
for  it  is  a  source  of  indefinite  mischief.  God  certainly  designs 
to  act  on  men  socially,  as  wTell  as  individually,  and  to  vary 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  109 

the  whole  exercise  of  life,  in  a  way  to  exert  the  most  health- 
ful power  over  their  character.  If  any  one  is  disturbed  or  af- 
fected with  distrust  by  what  I  here  advance,  in  connexion 
with  this  subject,  1  refer  him  to  an  article  on  the  "  Spiritual 
Economy  of  Revivals  of  Religion,"  in  the  Christian  Spec- 
tator of  1838,  where  he  will  find  what  sentiments  I  entertain 
of  revivals  exhibited  more  fully.  But  I  was  speaking  of  the 
great  hopes  we  have  rested  on  revivals,  and  to  this  we  now 
return.  If  you  will  attend  the  General  Association  of  Con- 
necticut, or  of  Massachusetts,  and  listen  to  the  reports  on  the 
state  of  religion,  you  will  discover,  although  it  may  not  be 
uniformly  said,  that  a  year  which  has  brought  no  revivals  of 
religion  is  considered  to  be  of  course  a  barren  year ;  the  "  Spirit 
of  God  will  be  said  to  be  withdrawn,"  "  Zion  to  languish," 
"  religion  to  decay,"  "  the  word  to  be  fruitless,"  and  I  know 
not  what  beside. 

Suppose  now  it  be  asked,  whether  a  revival  can  be  had  all 
the  time?  No,  that  will  not  be  pretended;  for  the  term  is 
used  with  a  special  meaning  to  denote  a  time  of  exaltation 
and  victory.  It  comes  then  to  this,  that  having  made  every 
thing  of  a  revival  of  religion,  and  little  or  nothing  of  religion 
itself,  we  spend  the  intervening  times  in  mourning  over  our- 
selves for  languishing  when  we  cannot  help  it,  and  in  chid- 
ing ourselves  because  we  cannot  live  in  the  extraordinary 
as  an  ordinary  thing !  Meantime,  we  virtually  take  it  for 
granted  that  God,  because  he  does  not  help  us  to  realize 
an  impossibility,  is  withdrawn,  and  since  the  revival  is  gone  by, 
what  conclusion  have  we  left,  but  that  "  Zion  languishes,"  and 
that  life  is  to  no  Christian  purpose  any  longer  ?  There  could 
not  be  a  more  unhappy  style  of  practical  religion.  Nothing 
stands  in  a  natural  attitude,  there  is  no  regular  pulse  of  life 
left,  and  we  only  know  that  we  live  by  the  spasms  we  suffer. 
Could  we  believe  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  with  us,  at  all  times, 

in  the  ordinary  as  in  the  extraordinary,  in  the  house  too  as  in 
10 


HO  ARGUMENT   FOR    DISCOURSES 

'the  church,  and  that  godly  living,  in  the  family,  carefully  per- 
severed in,  will  be  training  up,  in  a  way  that  is  eilent  and  im- 
perceptible, sons  and  daughters  unto  God  ;  working  results 
therefore  as  important  as  the  public  scenes  in  which  unbe- 
lievers and  infidels  are  subdued  to  Christ, — did  we  heartily 
believe  that  there  is  something  good  to  be  done,  some  good 
possibility  waiting  for  us  at  all  times,  which  is  worth  as  much 
and  in  God's  view  as  sacred,  as  a  revival  of  religion,  how 
much  happier  should  we  be,  and  quite  as  much  better  as  hap- 
pier; for  now  we  discourage  ourselves  in  every  thing  good, 
and  allow  nothing  to  be  properly  good,  because  we  have  not  a 
revival  of  religion. 

And  then  when  the  revival  comes,  it  comes  as  a  storm,  a 
strange  day  of  power  and  spiritual  commotion,  and  they  that 
were  sighing  for  the  day,  are  about  as  full  of  anxiety  lest  it  run 
to  wildness  and  extravagance,  as  they  were  before  to  have  it 
come.  For  a  revival  of  religion  may  as  well  be  idolized  as 
any  other  creature  of  God,  a  stone  or  a  star,  and  then,  having 
become  an  idol,  the  general  truth  that  superstitious  expecta- 
tion exaggerates  all  objects,  is  sure  to  be  verified.  If  the  whole 
of  eternity  hangs  on  religion,  and  religion  is  nothing  but  a 
revival  of  religion,  there  ought  assuredly  to  be  some  commo- 
tion when  it  comes,  as  well  as  great  despondency  when  it 
goes ! 

Besides,  there  is  another  cause  of  extravagance.  Man  is  a 
eocial  creatui  e,  so  that  if  we  really  deny  organic  power  and 
dissolve  even  families  into  isolated  units  of  free  agency — if  we 
hold  our  religion  as  a  strict  exercise  of  individualism,  and 
never  allow  it  to  marry  itself  to  our  natural  affections  and 
our  social  instincts,  still  these  social  instincts  remain  within 
us,  and  the  more  they  are  baffled  and  kept  out  of  action,  the 
more  sure  they  are  to  burst  over,  at  last,  all  barriers,  and  seize 
as  it  were  by  force,  the  indulgence  denied  them.  Now  a  re- 
vival of  religion,  whatever  we  may  say  or  think  of  it,  is  a  so- 


ON    CHRISTIAN   NURTURE.  HI 

cial  scene,  and  the  peculiar  power  exerted  in  it  is  social  and  in 
that  view  organic  power.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  be  the  design 
of  God  in  such  scenes,  as  far  as  they  are  sober  realities,  to  wield 
the  power  of  social  impulses,  as  in  preaching  he  wields  the 
power  of  personal  feeling  and  expression,  in  behalf  of  his  truth. 
Accordingly,  if  all  the  social  instincts  have  before  and  ordinarily 
been  baffled  as  regards  their  activity,  they  will  now  rush  in,  as 
animals  dying  for  thirst  rush  to  the  water,  and  having  found 
vent  for  once,  in  religious  scenes  that  move  large  masses  of 
men,  they  will  burn  with  such  intensity  as  amounts,  if  not 
to  phrenzy,  to  a  dangerous  extravagance.  Thus  you  will 
observe,  in  such  a  scene,  that  if  there  be  some  half  solitary 
beings  brought  within  its  power,  persons  whose  social  nature 
has  before  been  almost  wholly  disappointed  of  its  nautral  wants, 
these  are  likely  even  to  become  bewildered  by  the  strange  joy 
of  an  organic  feeling,  while  the  children  who  have  grown  up 
in  a  truly  Christian  family,  where  their  natural  affections  have 
been  bathed  in  religion  as  an  element,  from  their  earliest  days, 
will  suffer  no  excitement  that  is  not  within  the  gentle  bonds 
of  order  and  health.  In  which  we  see,  that  nothing  can  so  ef- 
ectually  abate  religious  extravagances,  as  to  have  a  style  of 
religion  that  is  formed  by  the  grace  of  God  in  the  house,  and 
intertwining  itself  there  among  the  roots  of  family  feeling, 
grows  up  into  a  habit  of  sanctified  love  and  loving  sanctity. 

I  have  also  a  yet  more  serious  complaint  to  make,  viz.  that 
I  see  great  reason,  and  the  greater  the  longer  I  live,  to  dis- 
trust the  manner  of  testing  religious  character,  generally  pre- 
valent in  connexion  with  this  type  of  religion.  W,e  make 
nothing  of  habit,  nothing  of  a  proposed  aim  of  life  connected 
with  Christian  duties,  but  we  demand  a  kind  of  religious  ex- 
perience that  stands  in  marked  contrast  with  the  previous  time, 
particularly  in  regard  to  feelings  of  complacency  towards  God. 
For  it  is  assumed  that,  if  any  man  can  express  the  fact  that 
he  has  found  great  emotions  of  delight  in  God  or  the  character 
of  God,  he  is  of  course  a  true  disciple.  And  yet  nothing  is 


112  ARGUMENT   FOR    DISCOURSES 

more  common  than  to  find  the  most  extatic  flights  of  experi- 
ence, in  this  particular,  end,  within  a  very  few  months,  in  a 
total  indifference  to  religion,  and  a  manifest  abandonment  of 
every  duty.  What  now  is  the  secret  of  these  painful  defec- 
tions ?  Certainly  it  is  not  that  love  is  no  Scripture  evidence 
of  Christan  character.  Nothing  is  declared  more  frequently. 
But  it  is  that  the  mind,  in  what  we  call  a  revival  of  religion, 
may  often  be  thrown  and  often  is  thrown  into  a  state  of  emotion 
which  cannot  be  distinguished,  for  the  time,  from  true  Chris- 
tian love  and  yet  is  wholly  distant  from  love. 

And  it  comes  to  pass,  unless  I  mistake,  in  the  following  man- 
ner. First  it  is  in  the  nature,  as  I  have  said,  of  every  human 
mind,  when  looking  upon  God  in  the  simple  attitude  of  contem- 
plation, as  upon  a  picture,  to  feel  that  he  is  a  perfectly  excel- 
lent and  lovely  being.  J\  o  enmity  rises,  no  turbid  feeling  springs 
into  life,  unless  it  consciously  reflects  on  itself  as  unworthy  and 
wholly  unlike  to  God,  or  recollects  its  own  determination  to 
adhere  to  courses  of  wrong  which  God  forbids.  And  it  lies 
in  the  very  facts  of  the  case,  you  will  observe  beforehand, 
that  if  any  person  can  be  held  for  a  length  of  time  to  this  con- 
templative mew,  he  will  for  the  same  length  of  time,  feel  that 
God  is  lovely,  and  that  is  a  feeling  which  no  man  can  distin- 
guish from  love,  as  a  practical  embrace  of  God  and  his  law, 
until  it  is  put  to  the  test  and  made  to  try  itself  by  the  Scripture 
method  of  trying  love,  that  is  by  the  keeping  of  God's  com- 
mandments. Accordingly  a  man  wholly  irreligious  in  his  life 
comes  within  the  sphere  of  a  revival  of  religion,  he  hears  a 
great  deal  of  preaching,  thinks  much  upon  what  he  hears,  be- 
comes a  good  deal  heated  by  the  general  excitement,  and  some- 
what confused  by  his  own  ill  directed  efforts  to  realize  an  un- 
known experience,  till  at  length,  having  no  practical  duties  on 
hand  to  show  him  the  conflict  of  his  will  with  God's  authority, 
and  becoming  unsphered,  as  it  were,  from  all  subjective 
thoughts  which  may  keep  him  apprised  of  his  own  unlikeness 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  113 

to  God,  by  the  total  absorption  of  his  mind  in  the  objective  reali- 
ties of  religion, — what  wonder  is  it  that  his  soul  takes  fire  be- 
fore God,  and  blazes  up  to  heaven  lira  passionate  admiration 
of  his  beauty  and  glory  ?  And  this  new  rhapsody,  this  strange 
kindling  of  enthusiasm,  he  is  sure  must  be  Christian  love, — 
now  his  sins  arc  forgiven,  and  his  peace  with  God  is  sealed ! 

On  precisely  this  kind  of  evidence  generally,  converts  are 
accepted  as  such  at  the  door  of  the  church,  and  admitted  to  the 
interior  rites  of  discipleship.  In  fact,  no  evidence  of  Chris- 
tian character  is  considered  so  decisive,  as  that  which  is  found 
in  a  change  of  emotions.  This  is  love,  the  new  heart,  the 
new  taste,  the  new  instinct  which  displaces  the  old  instinct 
of  hatred — every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God.  Undoubt- 
edly the  text  is  true,  but  it  is  also  true  that  love  has  a  test, 
even  the  keeping  of  God's  commandments,  and  until  that  test 
is  added,  the  less  we  rest  upon  mere  emotions,  however 
strange,  the  better.  And  yet  how  many  are  nursed  in  a  pre- 
sumptuous confidence  that  all  is  right  with  God,  because  they 
have  had  their  pasions  kindled,  for  once,  in  this  way  by  the 
beauty  and  glory  of  God !  What  careful  minister,  seeing  how 
many  are  gathered  round  him,  in  the  church,  who  manifest 
no  real  love  to  God  in  the  practical  duties  of  life,  and  have 
never  shown  any  Christian  character,  save  that  they  once 
were  subjects  of  a  religious  rhapsody,  has  not  often  staggered 
under  the  suspicion  of  some  dismal  error,  in  the  Current  views 
of  religious  experience. 

For  myself,  I  feel  obliged,  in  faithfulness  to  God,  to  declare, 
that  I  have  more  than  a  suspicion  on  this  subject.  Indeed  my 
own  experience  as  a  pastor,  connected  with  the  thoughts  ex- 
pressed above,  has  compelled  me  to  feel  that,  if  a  young  person 
or  child  comes  to  me,  in  a  time  of  religious  quiet,  and  simply 
asks  to  be  admitted  as  a  disciple  to  the  ordinances,  disclosing 
a  habit  of  private  devotion,  declaring  a  serious  purpose  and 
desire  to  live  a  religious  life,  and  indicating  a  settled  spirit 

of  dependence  »n  God  for  the  sustenance  of  all  good  exer- 
10* 


114  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

cises,  I  have  a  far  better  and  more  reliable  evidence  of  Chris- 
tian character,  than  any  sudden  burst  of  extatic  emotion  to- 
wards God  can  possibly  yield.  These  too,  as  experience  will 
abundantly  show,  are  the  persons  who  maintain  the  best  ex- 
amples of  piety  afterwards.  We  see  too,  in  such  examples, 
that  the  more  closely  piety  is  wedded  to  habit,  and  the  more 
thoroughly  it  is  interwoven  with  common  life,  the  healthier 
and  firmer  is  the  growth.  It  wants  not  great  experiences  to 
make  great  Christians.  Between  extatic  flights  and  godly 
lives  there  is  no  valid  connexion.  But  when  the  spirit  of  God 
sanctifies  the  table  and  the  hearth,  and  makes  the  homes  tem- 
ples of  piety  to  childhood,  when  newness  of  life  begins  with 
education  or  nurture,  and  not  in  high  scenes  or  explosive 
changes,  then  the  church  of  God  growing  up,  like  a  nation  or 
empire,  from  a  silent  law  of  increase,  in  its  own  nature,  be- 
comes a  compact  organic  frame,  having  the  vital  spirit,  as  it 
is  the  body,  of  Christ  himself. 

I  have  spoken  already  in  my  '  Discourses,'  of  many  evils  and 
defects  in  our  present  type  of  practical  religion — the  mischie- 
vous impressions  it  gives  to  children ;  the  discouragement  of 
all  right  aims  and  efforts  wrought  in  their  minds ;  and  the  arti- 
ficial hostility  to  religion  produced  in  their  minds,  by  modes  of 
treatment  that  are  contrary  to  first  principles.  Baptism,  too, 
we  are  holding  as  an  empty  tradition ;  a  form  the  soul  of  which 
is  evaporated  and  lost ;  r  obbing  thus  ourselves  and  our  children 
of  all  the  proper  benefits  of  the  rite,  and  giving  to  its  rejectors 
the  strongest  argument  they  have  against  it.  It  was  for  these 
unhappy  defects  and  errors  in  our  style  of  piety,  that  I  was 
moved  to  seek  a  remedy,  and  1  struck  at  the  radical  error  of 
training  up  children  for  future  conversion.  I  showed,  by  thir- 
teen distinct  arguments,  that  the  only  true  aim  and  expectation 
of  Christian  nurture  is  that  the  child  is  to  grow  up  a  Chris- 
tian— not  doubting  that  I  was  offering  to  our  churches  a  great 
principle,  worthy  of  their  profound  consideration,  and  one  that 
contains  a  remedy  for  the  principal  defects  of  piety  and  char- 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  H5 

acter,  by  which  their  honor  is  defaced  and  their  prosperity 
hindered.  And  what  now  has  been  the  result  ?  Has  one  of 
my  thirteen  arguments  been  answered  ?  Not  one,  unless  I 
am  to  concede  that  an  objection  raised  against  my  argument 
from  "  organic  catises"  and  hung  on  the  words,  without  any 
consideration  of  their  meaning,  is  to  be  taken  as  an  answer. 
With  this  single  exception,  which  is  no  exception,  all  my  proofs 
stand  to  this  hour  untouched  and  in  their  original  integrity, 
and  the  public  mind,  meantime,  fogged  by  "  dangerous  tenden- 
cies" and  misrepresentations  and  worn  out  theories,  is  busying 
itself  in  false  issues,  that  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  real 
merits  of  the  question.  Is  it  now  too  much  to  entreat  of  our 
ministers  and  churches  that,  after  they  have  sufficiently  pun- 
ished my  heresies,  they  will  begin  to  have  some  compassion 
on  themselves ;  return  to  the  question,  as  it  is,  and  see  whether 
God  is  not  offering  them  a  medicine  here  lor  the  want  of  which 
they  are  likely  even  to  die  1 

But  there  now  remains,  brethren  of  the  committee,  a  ques- 
tion that  must  rest  with  you,  viz.,  what  shall  be  done  with  my 
book  ?  I  did  not  ask  you  to  publish  it  at  the  first,  I  do  not  ask 
you  to  resume  the  publication  now.  As  iar  as  I  am  person- 
ally concerned,  it  is  of  the  least  possible  consequence  whether 
you  do  it  or  not.  Possibly  you  erred  in  deciding  to  publish  it, 
though  not  because  of  any  heresy  in  it.  Possibly  you  may  have 
erred  again  in  suspending  the  publication.  That  I  leave  with 
you.  On  your  title  page  you  say,  "  Approved  by  the  Commit- 
tee of  Publication,"  in  which  you  seem  to  suppose  that  you  are 
really,  as  a  committee,  intrusted  with  this  matter  and  have  a 
judgment  of  your  own  concerning  it.  Have  you,  in  truth,  such 
an  official  trust,  or  do  you  mean  to  say,  by  giving  up  your  judg- 
ment, the  moment  your  constituents  judge  differently,  that 
there  is  yet  another  out  door  committee  of  panic  mongers  and 
wire  pullers  back  of  you,  before  whom  you  engage  to  surrender, 


115  ARGUMENT  FOR    DISCOURSES 

and  when  they  so  decree,  unsay  your  own  judgments  and  take 
back  your  own  acts  ?  If  that  be  necessary,  then  it  is  a  most 
dishonorable  necessity — dishonorable  I  do  not  mean  for  you; 
for  I  have  perfect  confidence  in  the  integrity  of  your  aims,  and 
I  think  I  understand  the  difficulty  of  your  position;  but  dis- 
honorable, because  of  the  factious  and  disorderly  spirit,  which 
has  obliged  a  respectable  committee  to  sacrifice  their  official 
doings,  in  order  to  save  their  society ;  for  if  any  fault  of  dignity 
appears  in  this  transaction,  it  is  chargeable  mainly  not  on  you, 
but  on  some  very  lamentable  defect  of  character  rather,  in  the 
religious  community  you  represent.  I  only  think  that  to  pre- 
vent a  revelation  so  undignified,  some  degree  of  stubbornness 
might  have  been  pardoned  in  you. 

Since,  then,  it  is  not  you  that  have  thrown  yourselves  against 
my  character  as  a  teacher  of  truth,  but  a  body  of  Christian 
ministers  and  persons  of  influence  sufficiently  numerous  to  sway 
the  movements  of  the  Massachusetts  churches,  I  turn  from  you 
to  them,  and  I  hope  the  expostulations  I  may  venture  to  offer 
will  be  received  as  kindly  as  they  are  meant.  The  violence 
they  have  done  my  character,  it  will  be  seen,  justifies  me  in 
this  boldness,  and  the  high  ground  of  security  to  which  I  have 
been  able  to  bring  my  argument,  helps  me  to  speak  with  the 
better  chance  of  effect.  Indeed,  it  was  only  the  opportunity 
here  given  me  of  saying  some  things  with  propriety,  for  the 
benefit  of  religion,  which  almost  never  can  be  said  without 
presumption,  that  finally  decided  me  in  the  purpose  to  under- 
take this  second  exposition  of  my  subject. 

Brethren  of  Massachusetts,  the  Publishing  Committee  of 
your  Sabbath  School  Society,  a  grave  and  judicious  body  of 
men  whom  you  appointed,  I  presume,  because  of  the  confidence 
you  had  in  their  character,  after  a  long  and  careful  examina- 
tion of  two  discourses  I  had  written,  decided  to  give  them  to 
the  public.  Two  or  three  critics,  not  more  capable  certainly  of 
detecting  error  than  they,  have  since  discovered  dangerous 


ON   CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  117 

tendencies  and  other  like  shadows  of  evil  lurking  in  the  tract 
published.  In  a  moment,  you  renounce  the  judgment  of  your 
committee,  you  grow  sensitive,  you  vent  your  dissatisfaction  in 
acts  of  rudeness  to  a  stranger,  you  circulate  and  print  stories 
implicating  my  word,  you  go  on  to  propagate  your  uneasiness 
and  stir  yourselves  up  into  a  clamor,  till  finally  you  compel 
your  committee,  if  they  will  save  the  society,  to  suspend  the 
sale  of  the  book.  Now  also  you  discover,  if  you  have  read 
these  pages,  that  you  had,  after  all,  gotten  before  your  time, 
and  that  the  panic  by  which  you  have  been  agitated  had  no 
intelligent  cause.  In  view  of  facts  like  these,  have  you  not 
some  opportunity  to  discover  that  there  is  a  degree  of  sensi- 
tiveness to  opinions  among  you,  which  exceeds  the  limits  of 
reason,  and  certainly  does  not  indicate  as  great  breadth  of 
character  as  would  be  desirable  in  this  age  of  the  world  ? 

You  have  also  a  metropolitan  position,  as  regards  the 
churches  of  New  England,  and  you  must  not  wonder  if  on  this 
account,  you  are  a  subject  of  study  and  of  observation.  Par- 
don me  if  I  say  that  we  are  not  always  satisfied  with  the  man- 
ner in  which  you  fill  your  office.  You  have  men  of  the  highest 
worth  and  character  among  you,  men  who  are  fit  to  lead  you 
into  better  and  wiser  demonstrations,  and  who  earnestly  de- 
plore, as  I  certainly  know,  the  very  unhappy  spirit  and  the 
narrow  councils  which  now  predominate  in  your  churches. 
But  they  prefer  apparently  not  to  encounter  a  religious  tem- 
perament, which  may  prove  too  uncomfortable  to  their  peace, 
and  retire  rather  from  the  place  they  ought  to  occupy,  than 
come  forward  to  assert  a  position  worthy  of  their  character  and 
talents.  We  deplore,  in  particular,  the  relation  in  which  you 
seem  to  stand  to  the  Unitarians.  God  has  made  both  them 
and  you  to  change  since  the  separation,  and  has  carried  you  on 
thus  to  a  position  essentially  new,  but  you  seem  unable  to  dis- 
cover it.  Unitarianism  was  the  necessary  birth  of  a  dead  or- 
thodoxy, and  when  it  has  ceased  to  exist,  for  cease  it  assur- 


118          ARGUMENT  FOR  DISCOURSES 

edly  will,  it  will  not  be  found  to  have  existed  in  vain.  Indeed , 
•  it  may  finally  be  discovered,  that  Unitarianism  is  nothing  but 
the  proper  result  of  a  false  assumption,  that  has  run  through 
all  the  dogmatic  efforts  of  the  church,  ever  since  dogmatic  the- 
ology was  invented, — which  if  it  be  once  cast  out,  will  carry  off 
with  it  no  small  part  of  our  strifes,  and  leave  us  to  subside 
into  the  proper  unity  of  the  truth.  I  ask  no  assent  to  such  a 
suggestion,  for  I  have  not  time  to  verify  the  probability  of  it. 
Enough  that  it  is  possible  or  conceivable.  Meantime,  it  is 
perfectly  clear  to  observation,  than  Unitarianism  is  not  con- 
tent with  itself.  Conscious  undoubtedly  of  possessing  impor- 
tant truths,  it  reveals,  at  least,  a  suspicion  of  its  own  complete- 
ness, and  presents  itself,  in  this  view,  as  a  most  interesting  sub- 
ject of  study.  And  if  there  were  any  such  freedom  of  confer- 
ence between  you  and  the  Unitarians  as  there  might  be,  if  there 
was  a  disposition  to  present  great  truths  held  by  yourselves,  in 
shapes  that  would  clear  them  of  difficulty,  the  want  they  suffer 
of  these  truths  would  scarcely  fail  of  inducing  their  acceptance. 
I  observe  too,  that  they  often  extend  themselves  towards  you, 
in  friendly  demonstrations,  which,  though  they  do  not  come  to 
you  on  their  knees,  ought  to  be  Jaken  as  inviting  and  offering  a 
reconsideration.  Could  you  now  come  forward  like  men  who 
trust  their  own  principles,  to  do  something  worthy  of  your  age- 
it  is  scarcely  supposable  that  good  results,  and  that  of  a  very 
important  character,  would  not  follow.  But,  instead  of  this, 
you  seem  to  be  so  much  afraid  of  your  own  principles  that  you 
cannot  suffer  a  friendly  approach  of  any  kind ;  and  to  think  a 
new  thought,  or  to  seek  to  reproduce  an  old  doctrine,,  in  some 
variant  shape,  that,  without  sacrificing  even  a  hair  of  the  truth, 
will  obviate  their  objections,  is  too  frightful  to  be  endured.  I 
even  observe,  that  if  you  happen,  by  some  accident,  to  have 
preached  a  thoroughly  orthodox  sermon  which  they  are  tempt- 
ed to  approve,  you  throw  your  inkstand  at  them,  as  Luther  did 
at  the  devil,  to  keep  them  off!  Could  there  be  a  worse  infat- 
uation? 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  119 

Meantime  the  Episcopal  church  is  waiting  for  the  Unitarian 
body,  in  Boston,  to  fall,  as  a  ripe  fruit,  into  its  hands,  and  ac- 
tually holding  its  hands  for  the  prize;  which  if  they  do  not  re- 
ceive, it  will  not  be  the  fault  of  many  among  yourselves.    Per- 
haps the  hope  of  Episcopacy,  in  this  respect,  is  more  sanguine 
than  it  need  be.    But  what  do  we  see,  if  any  among  the  Unita- 
rians become  dissatisfied  and  desire  to  find  some  form  of  re- 
ligion more  adequate  to  their  spiritual  wants?     Seldom  do 
they  stop  with  you,  but  they  pass  directly  on  to  the  hands 
of  the  bishop.    They  prefer  even  to  take  a  type  of  religion  for- 
eign to  New  England,  and  one  that  has  no  sympathy  with  our 
institutions,  rather  than  to  stop  with  you,  who  are  bound  up 
with  them  in  the  ties  of  a  common  history.     An  Episcopal 
writer  too,  has  just  been  calling  the  attention  of  your  Boston 
public,  to  what  he  considers  to  have  been  the  radical  defects  of 
our  religion,  as  illustrated  in  our  history,  evidently  with  a  view 
to  show  such  as  become  dissatisfied,  in  any  degree,  with  Unita- 
rianism,  that  there  is  a  place  of  rest  and  satisfaction  in  Epis- 
copacy.   On  this  subject  he  has  produced  a  calm,  well  studied 
and  eloquent  tract.     This  tract  was   written   without   any 
knowledge  of  my  '  Discourses,'  and  they  without  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  tract,  and  yet  you  will  observe,  that  the  defect, 
which  I  was  endeavoring  to  supply,  is  precisely  the  same  with 
that  out  of  which  he  draws  all  the  mischiefs  that  have  befallen 
us.    The  impression  left  by  the  tract  is,  that  Episcopacy  is  the 
proper  remedy.     I  have  endeavored  to  suggest  a  remedy  con- 
sistent with  our  history,  and  the  ecclesiastical  frame  of  our 
churches,  and  lo !  you  raise  such  a  storm  that  my  book  is 
silenced ! 

I  should  not  discharge  my  whole  duty,  in  this  connexion,  if  I 
did  not  say  that  these  demonstrations,  which  I  so  earnestly 
deplore,  are  probably  traceable,  in  a  very  considerable  degree, 
to  a  single  cause,  and  the  sooner  you  awake  to  the  mischiefs 
you  suffer  from  this  quarter,  the  better.  If  one  sinner  destroy- 


]20  ARGUMENT    FOR    DISCOURSES 

eth  much  good,  far  more  true  is  it  that  one  bad  newspaper 
destroyeth  much  good.  You  have  a  religious  newspaper  that 
has  long  been  exerting  a  most  baleful  effect  on  your  churches, 
restraining  the  breadth  of  Christian  character  and  opinions, 
undignifying  the  feelings,  and  perverting  the  Christian  man- 
ners of  your  people.  To  say  that  this  paper  is  behind  the  age 
is  nothing,  it  is  behind  all  ages.  It  is  as  ignorant  of  the  past 
as  it  is  opposite  to  the  future.  It  exhibits  that  uncomfortable 
spirit  which  properly  belongs  to  a  brute  conservatism  held  by 
the  will,  separated  from  all  intelligent  views  of  the  past,  and 
even  further  still,  from  the  dignified  and  courtly  sentiments 
that  are  commonly  connected  with  a  veneration  for  ancient 
names  and  opinions.  The  one  virtue  for  which  it  is  sometimes 
praised,  viz.  its  consistency,  is  but  another  name  for  the  fact 
that  its  opinions  and  manners  and  spirit  are  all  equally  bad, 
and  that  it  holds  to  them  all  with  equal  tenacity.  This  paper 
aggravates  every  mischief  you  suffer;  indeed  I  sometimes 
think  that  it  is  the  author  of  whatever  is  undesirable  in  your 
present  state.  For  it  is  not  the  guiding  reins  of  wisdom  that 
it  applies,  turning  your  chariot  by  gentle  retractions,  on  this 
side  and  on  that,  into  the  path  of  safety  and  progress ;  but  it  is 
more  fitly  represented  by  that  thong  in  the  harness  which  falls 
across  the  haunches  of  the  animal,  and  upon  which  throwing 
back  his  weight  he  sometimes  stubbornly  refuses  to  move. 
And  so  often  and  rudely  has  this  unilluminated  conservatism 
backed  its  bulk  upon  every  genial  and  hopeful  motion,  that 
many  appear  to  shrink  from  encountering  its  violence,  prefer- 
ring to  save  their  quiet  and  possibly  their  dignity,  from  the 
ill  manners  in  which  it  finds  impunity.* 

There  is  no  instrument  of  power,  in  this  age,  as  we  are  just 
beginning  to  discover,  that  can  be  compared  with  a  newspaper. 
What  now  we  want  in  New  England,  above  every  thing  else, 

*  See  note  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


ON    CHRISTIAN    NURTURE.  121 

is  a  great  religious  newspaper,  edited  with  such  a  degree  of 
ability,  such  firmness  and  breadth  of  understanding,  as  shall 
make  it  an  instrument  worthy  of  our  churches,  and  worthy  of 
the  age. 

Brethren,  whether  you  will  believe  it  or  not,  a  new  day  has 
come.  If  we  will,  we  can  make  it  a  better  day,  but  it  demands 
a  furniture  of  thought  and  feeling,  such  as  we  must  stretch  our- 
selves in  a  degree  to  realize.  We  must  be  firm  for  the  truth, 
and ,  for  that  very  reason,  ready  to  detect  our  own  errors.  We 
must  accept  the  legacy  left  us  by  our  manly  fathers,  a  legacy 
of  labor  and  duty  and  progress,  and  taking  our  stand  for  sound 
doctrine,  we  must  refuse  to  think  any  doctrine  sound  which 
does  not  help  us  to  grow,  or  any  growth  a  reality  which  does 
not  include  a  growth  in  wisdom  and  breadth  and  Christian 
dignity. 

11 


SPIRITUAL  ECONOMY  OF  REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION.* 


WE  do  not  undertake  the  vindication  of  revivals  of  religion. 
The  Divine  Husbandry  in  them  is  rather  our  study.  Shall  we 
mask  our  conviction,  that  here  is  a  want  which  has  long  de- 
manded grave  attention, — that  the  views  of  this  subject  enter- 
tained by  many  are  unripe  and  partial,"their  notions  of  Chris- 
tian instrumentality  confused,  and  their  practice  desultory  to 
the  same  degree.  The  discredit  accruing  from  this  cause  is 
really  the  heaviest  argument,  that  lies  against  revivals — heavier 
than  all  the  attacks  of  their  adversaries.  Indeed,  if  we  had  it 
in  hand  to  convince  the  adversaries,  we  know  not  how  we 
could  hope  more  effectually  to  succeed,  than  by  unfolding  the 
Divine  Husbandry,  the  Reason  of  God's  Economy  in  them, — 
which  now  is  our  attempt. 

The  term  revival  of  religion  is  one  not  found  in  the  scrip- 
tures, and  one  to  which  we  have  decided  objections.  It  pro- 
perly denotes  a  reviving  of  Christian  piety,  where  it  has  sunk 
into  decline.  We  use  it  to  denote  a  scene  of  conversion,  of 
public  exaltation  and  victory ;  and,  what  is  even  opposite  to  its 
proper  meaning,  we  use  it  as  the  name,  not  of  a  scene  which  is 
counterpart  to  a  state  of  dishonor  in  the  church,  but  of  some- 
thing which  belongs  inherently  to  the  gospel  itself,  in  the  same 
way  as  preaching  or  the  sacraments.  And  then  as  the  term 
itself  is  seen  to  be  no  accurate  measure  of  the  idea,  a  feeling  of 
„ , — S-  * 

*  From  the  Christian  Spectator  of  1838,  Vol  X. 


124  SPIRITUAL   ECONOMY    OF 

distrust  arises  in  all  thinking  persons.  It  carries  an  air  of  falsity, 
which  is  undignified  and  painful  to  the  mind,  perhaps  I  should 
rather  say  an  air  of  crudity,  or  superstition,  as  if  cant  were  sub- 
stituted for  intelligence.  Or  if  it  is  heartily  accepted,  the  more 
probable  is  it  that  faith  embraces  some  portion  of  error,  and 
earnestness  exults  in  a  smoke  of  mental  confusion.  For  words 
are  powerful  instruments,  and  false  words  can  never  be  used 
without  danger  ;  they  mislead  the  action  even  of  philosophic 
minds,  much  more  of  those  who  never  think  at  all.  Still  the 
term  revival  has  found  a  current  use,  and  convenience  will 
perhaps  give  it  perpetuity.  In  this  article  we  submit  to  the 
term,  only  endeavoring,  since  it  cannot  be  avoided,  to  measure 
and  guard  its  import. 

This  not  being  done— the  real  position,  if  any,  which  revi- 
vals hold  in  the  economy  of  God's  spiritual  administration  not 
being  well  ascertained  by  the  Christian  body,  they  are  viewed 
by  Christians  themselves,  with  all  the  possible!  varieties  of  feel- 
ing between  idolatry  and  distrust.  Even  the  same  mind  often 
fluctuates  between  these  extremes.  To-day,  the  face  of  God  is 
bright  upon  his  people,  and  the  whole  community  is,  in  a  sense, 
visibly  swayed  by  his  power ;  and  now,  in  the  happy  freshness 
and  vitality  of  the  scene,  it  is  concluded,  that  there  is  no  true 
religion  but  in  a  revival.  To-morrow,  as  the  freshness  of  new 
scenes  and  new  feelings  is  manifestly  abating,  there  begins  to 
be  an  unhappy  and  desperate  feeling, — something  must  be 
done, — religion  itself  is  dying.  And  yet  what  shall  be  done,  it 
is  very  difficult  to  find ;  for  every  effort  to  hold  fast  the  exact 
degree  and  sort  of  feeling,  to  make  a  post  of  exercises,  which 
in  their  very  nature  have  motion  and  change,  only  sinks  the 
vital  force  more  rapidly.  But  the  calm  at  length  comes,  and 
now  the  prostration  is  the  greater  for  the  desperate  outlay  of 
force  used  to  prevent  it.  A  dissatisfying  look  now  begins  to 
rest,  when  it  is  reviewed,  on  the  scene  of  revival  itself;  dis- 
couragement, unbelief,  sloth, — a  long  age  of  lead  follows. 
Secretly  sickened  by  what  is  past,  many  fall  into  real  distrust 


REVIVALS    OF    RELIGION.  125 

of  spiritual  experiences.  Many  have  made  so  heavy  a  draft 
on  their  religious  vitality  or  capacity,  that  something  seems  to 
•be  expended  out  of  the  sensibility  even  of  their  conscience, — 
they  sink  into  neglects,  or  crimes  close  upon  the  verge  of 
apostacy  ;  or  they  betake  themselves  to  the  cheap  and  possible 
perfectionism  of  antinomian  irresponsibility.  The  extreme  we 
here  depict  is  not  often  reached;  but  there7  is  very  often  a 
marked  approach  towards  it.  The  consequence  is,  that  the  re- 
ligious life,  thus  unskilfully  ordered,  isunhappy,  wears  aforced 
look,  goes  with  a  perplexed  and  halting  gait. 

Our  present  aim,  then,  is  to  ascertain  the  real  office  and  posi- 
tion of  revivals, — to  furnish,  if  possible  a  view  of  them  which 
may  be  safely  held  at  all  times,  and  must  be  so  held,  if  any 
steady  and  intelligent  conduct  in  these  matters  is  to  be  secured. 
We  hope  to  establish  a  higher  and  more  solid  confidence  in  re- 
vivals, and,  at  the  same  time,  to  secure  to  the  cause  of  evan- 
gelical religion  a  more  natural,  satisfactory  and  happy,  as  well 
as  a  more  constant  movement. 

They  are  grounded,  we  shall  undertake  to  show,  both  in 
honor  and  in  dishonor.  They  belong  in  part,  to  the  original 
appointment  and  plan  of  God's  moral  administration,  in  which 
part,  they  are  only  modes  or  varieties  of  divine  action,  neces- 
sary to  our  renewal  and  culture  in  the  faith.  For  the  remain- 
der, they  are  made  necessary  by  the  criminal  instability  of 
God's  people,  or  take  their  extreme  character  from  unripe  or 
insufficient  views,  in  their  subjects  and  conductors.  The  two 
sides  of  the  subject,  thus  stated,  will  require  to  be  prosecuted 
separately. 

• 

If  we  are  to  show  revivals  of  religion  in  place,  (as  a  geologist 
might  say,)  or  as  they  stand  related  to  the  general  system  of 
God's  works,  purposes  and  ends,  we  need,  first  of  all,  to  show 
in  place  the  doctrine  itself  of  spiritual  agency.  In  speaking  of 
the  divine  agency  in  men,  we  are  obliged  to  use  many  and  va- 


126  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY    OF 

rious  figures  of  speech,  by  way  of  giving  sufficient  vividness 
and  practical  life  to  the  truth,  to  make  it  answer  its  moral  ends. 
We  speak  of  the  Spirit  of  God  as  "  descending,"  or  "  coming 
down,"  or  "sent  down,"  as  "  poured  out,"  as  "present"  in  a 
given  assembly  or  place,  as  "  grieved  away,"  or  "dwelling"  in 
the  heart  of  the  believer.  In  all  this,  if  we  understand  our- 
selves, we  only  dramatize  the  divine  action  with  a  view  to  give 
it  reality  and  conversableness.  But  some,  there  is  reason  to 
fear,  use  these  terms  intending  too  literally  in  them.  They 
separate  the  divine  agency  in  men,  from  the  general  system  in 
which  it  belongs, — they  make  the  doctrine  special  in  such  a 
sense  that  God  is  himself  desultory  in  it,  coming  and  going, 
journeying  between  the  earth  and  the  sky,  while  all  his  other 
operations  go  on  by  a  general  and  systematic  machinery,  which 
takes  care  of  itself. 

The  word  of  God  sometimes  speaks  of  the  divine  or  spiritual 
agency  in  men,  as  if  it  were  only  a  new  or  varied  extension  of 
the  divine  presence,  and  uses  the  term  presence  as  convertible 
with  spirit.  "  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit,  whither 
shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  T'  "  Cast  me  not  away  from  thy 
presence,  take  not  thy  Holy  Spirit  from  me.''  ' '  When  the  times 
of  refreshing  shall  come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord." 

Favored  by  this  example,  if  we  leave  out  of  sight  the  dis- 
tinctions of  the  trinity,  which  we  may  for  the  sake  of  greater 
simplicity  in  our  subject,  we  shall  readily  see,  that  the  doctrine 
of  spiritual  agency  is  grounded  in  the  simple  doctrine  of  GOD'S 
OMNIPRESENCE.  Here  it  is  in  place.  Of  this,  in  fact,  it  is  only 
a  member. 

What  do  we  mean  by  God's  omnipresence  ?  If  we  speak 
intelligently,  not  the  extension,  not  the  local  diffusion  of  the 
divine  substance.  We  mean,  negatively,  that  we  can  conceive 
of  no  place  above  God's  works  or  outside  of  them,  where  the 
divine  nature  resides ;  there  is  no  such  place.  We  are,  there- 
fore, obliged  to  think  of  God  as  in-resident  in  his  works.  Next 


REVIVALS    OF    RELIGION.  127 

we  mean,  positively  that  God  is  potentially  present, — present  in 
act  and  sway,  (whatever  may  be  true  of  his  substance  or  its 
relations  to  space,)  filling  all  things.  The  most  ready  illustra- 
tion of  this  subject  is  the  soul  residing  in  the  body.  In  what 
precise  organ  its  throne  is  we  know  not ;  but  virtually  or  ener- 
getically, it  is  all  in  every  part.  It  is  there  to  perceive,  to  have 
control  and  use,  and  it  is  one  will  which  actuates  and  system- 
atizes the  action  of  all  the  parts  together. 

Let  it  not  offend,  that  we  reduce  the  warm  and  glowing  doc- 
trine of  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  mere  cold  omnipres- 
ence. But  rather  let  some  just  degree  of  warmth  be  given  to 
the  latter, — a  doctrine  chilled  by  the  stagnant  unbelief,  and  the 
more  stagnant  philosophy  of  men.  The  true  notion  of  omni- 
presence shows  God  in  action  every  where,  as  much  as  in  the 
matters  of  grace.  He  is  in  all  things,  not  simply  as  staying  in 
them,  perchance  asleep;  but  he  is  in  them  by  a  presence  of 
power,  design  and  feeling ;  moving  all,  advancing  in  all,  to- 
wards his  great  appointed  ends.  God  is  not  entombed  in  his 
works.  That  vital  touch,  which  the  bier  felt  and  sent  into  the 
quickened  youth,  touches  all  things  and  they  live  unto  God. 
Forms  are  his  pliant  investiture.  Laws  are  the  currents  of  his 
will,  flowing  towards  the  ends  of  his  reason.  The  breast  of 
universal  nature  glows  with  his  warmth.  It  enlivens  even  the 
grave,  and  the  believer's  flesh,  feeling  the  Lord  of  the  resur- 
rection by,  resteth  in  hope.  When  we  reduce  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  then  in  man,  to  a  branch  of  the  divine  omnipresence,  we 
seem,  on  the  other  part,  to  hear  the  eternal  voice  lift  up  itself 
to  the  worlds  also,  the  forms,  the  forces,  and  thunder  their 
holy  inaugural  through  the  burnished  pillars  of  the  universe, 
saying,  "  Know  ye  not,  that  ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living 
God,  and  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you  "! 

But  observe  more  distinctly,  the  doctrine  of  God's  omnipres- 
ence does  not  affirm,  that  he  is  present  to  all  things  in  the  same 
sense.  Presence  being  identical  with  act  and  sway,  it  has  of 
course  this  law  in  itself,  that  God  is  present  to  each  thing  ac- 


128  SPIRITUAL   ECONOMY    OF 

cording  to  what  it  is,  and  according  to  what  he  is  doing  with 
it.  Thus  he  is  present  to  matter  as  matter  and  not  as  mind, 
molding  its  forms,  constructing  its  incidents.  To  vegetable 
natures  he  is  present  according  to  what  they  are,  and  according 
to  their  several  growths  and  kinds.  So  to  a  man  he  is  present 
as  animate  in  body,  in  spirit  an  image  of  himself!  If  man  falls 
into  sin,  he  is  then  present  to  him  as  a  sinner,  offended  by  his 
transgressions  and  averse  to  his  character.  If  he  undertake  to 
redeem,  he  is  then  present  as  prosecuting  such  an  object ;  con- 
vincing of  sin,  righteousness  and  a  judgment  to  come.  And 
now,  if  any  one  is  brought  to  repentance,  God  is  present  to  him 
in  a  still  more  intimate  and  glorious  way.  In  all  the  orders  of 
created  being  before  named,  God  has  found  nothing  to  recipro- 
cate his  moral  feelings;  but  here  he  finds  something  which 
suits  and  sympathizes  with  his  joys,  his  principles,  his  whole 
spirit.  Here  his  holiness  enters  into  a  resting  place  and  a  con- 
genial hospitality.  He  calls  it  his  home,  his  palace,  his  sanc- 
tuary, and  there  he  dwells,  bestowing  the  cherishments  of  a 
God  in  friendship.  This,  by  way  of  eminence,  is  called  the 
indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  here  the  great  law  of  om- 
nipresence still  pertains, — God  is  present  to  believers  accord- 
ing to  their  character,  their  times,  their  works,  their  wants, 
and  the  great  result  he  purposes  to  bring  them  to.  We  are  to 
expect,  of  course,  that  there  will  be  great  variety  in  the  man- 
ner of  his  presence,  or,  what  is  the  same,  in  the  kind  of  act 
and  sway  he  will  exert  in  them,  He  will  strengthen  what  i.< 
good,  fan  out  what  is  evil,  shed  peace,  impart  knowledge  and 
understanding,  invigorate  hope,  stimulate,  try,  purify,— in  a 
word,  he  will  order  his  agency  in  every  way  so  as  to  commu- 
nicate more  of  himself  to  them,  and  complete  them  in  his  like- 
ness. So  Paul,  contemplating  the  Spirit  in  believers  under  the 
figure  of  an  air-medium,  common,  or  present,  both  to  the  di- 
vine mind  and  to  ours,  says,  "the  Spirit  searcheth  all  things, 
yea,  the  deep  things  of  God."  Like  some  breath  of  wind, 
which  has  passed  through  fragrant  trees  and  banks  of  flowers, 


REVIVALS    OF    RELIGION.  129 

searching  them  and  bringing  grateful  flavors  of  them ;  so  the 
all-present  Spirit  ever  wafts  upon  us  the  deep  things,  the 
hidden  fragrance  and  the  treasured  sweetness  of  the  divine 
nature. 

The  doctrine  of  divine  agency  in  men  amounts,  then,  to 
this,— that  God  is  present  to  men,  according  to  what  they  are 
and  his  purposes  in  them,  just  as  he  is  present  to  material  na- 
tures, according  to  what  they  are  and  what  he  will  do  with 
them.  No  man  who  believes  in  the  divine  omnipresence,  the 
universal  act  and  sway  of  God,  can  reasonably  question  the 
work  of  the  spirit  in  men.  So  far  from  being  any  presumptu- 
ous claim  in  us,  to  think,  that  God  works  in  us  to  will  and  to 
do,  that  he  may  mold  us  unto  himself,  it  is  rather  presumptu- 
ous to  question  it.  To  believe,  that  God  is  present  in  act  and 
sway  to  the  vital  functions  of  a  finger,  and  not  to  a  mind,  or 
the  character  and  welfare  of  a  mind,  is  to  reverse  all  notion  of 
justness  and  real  dignity  in  the  divine  counsels. 

If  these  reasonings  concerning  the  doctrine  of  divine  agency 
are  somewhat  dry  and  abstruse  to  the  general  reader,  it  is  yet 
hoped,  that  such  as  are  more  practiced  in  questions  of  this  sort, 
will  have  a  higher  estimate  of  their  importance.  They  enable 
us  to  enter  on  the  spiritual  economy  of  revivals  at  a  great  ad- 
vantage, and  from  ground  high  enough  to  command  the  whole 
field. 

It  is  too  readily  conceded,  indeed  it  is  often  stoutly  insisted 
on,  even  by  those  who  may  be  called  extreme  revivalists,  that 
every  thing  of  a  periodical  or  temporary  nature  in  religion,  is, 
of  course,  dishonorable  and  suspicious.  The  adversaries  of 
revivals  are  ready,  of  course,  to  coincide.  Further,  they  are 
specially  offended,  when  it  is  claimed,  that  God  exercises  any 
temporary  or  periodical  sway  in  men.  In  their  view  it  is  noth- 
ing but  a  weak  conceit,  or  the  dream  of  a  wild  enthusiasm, 
when  God  is  supposed  to  be  specially  operative,  in  the  conver- 


130  SPIRITUAL   ECONOMY    OP 

sion  of  men,  at  any  particular  time  and  place,  or  in  any  single 
community. 

But  if  a  periodical  agency  be  so  derogatory  to  God's  honor, 
what  shall  be  thought  of  the  seasons,  the  intervals  of  drought 
and  rain,  and  all  the  revolving  cycles  of  outward  change?  If 
the  adversaries  of  revivals  believe  in  God's  omnipresence,  is 
there  not  a  presence  of  act  in  all  these  things,  according  to  their 
nature  and  his  purpose  in  them,  as  there  is  supposed  to  be  in 
the  spiritual  changes  which  affect  communities  1  On  their  prin- 
ciple, nature  ought  to  perfect  her  growths  in  the  scorchings  of 
an  eternal  sun,  or  in  the  drenchings  of  an  everlasting  rain,  and 
the  flowers  ought  to  stand,  from  age  to  age,  changeless  as  pet- 
rifactions. They  ought  to  see,  from  year  to  year,  the  same 
clouds  in  the  same  shapes  glued  fast  upon  the  sky,  and  the  same 
wind  everlastingly  exact  to  a  degree  of  their  thermometer,  ought 
to  blow  upon  them.  But  no,  nature  is  multiform  and  various  on 
every  side.  She  is  never  doing  exactly  the  same  thing,  at  one 
time,  which  she  has  done  at  another.  She  brings  forth  all  her 
bounties  by  inconstant  applications  and  cherishments  endlessly 
varied.  A  single  thought  extended  in  this  direction,  were 
enough,it  would  seem,  to  show  us,  that  while  God  is  unchange- 
able, he  is  yet  infinitely  various,— unchangeable  in  his  purposes, 
various  in  his  means. 

Is  it  said,  that  God  however  acts  in  nature  by  general  laws? 
So  doubtless  he  does  in  the  periodical  and  various  cultivation 
of  his  Spirit.  All  God's  works  and  agencies  are  embraced  and 
wrought  into  one  comprehensive  system,  by  laws.  (Even  mir- 
acles themselves,  are  credible  only  as  being,  in  some  sense, 
subject  to  laws.)  But  he  is  no  less  the  author  of  variety,  that 
he  produces  variety  by  system. 

Is  it  said,  that  God  produces  the  changes  of  nature  by  second 
causes  ?  Is  it  meant,  we  ask  in  reply,  to  deny  God's  omnipres- 
ence? Having  instituted  second  causes  to  manage  for  him, 
has  the  divine  nature  gone  upon  a  journey,  or  is  it,  perad ven- 
ture, asleep?  Or  is  God  still  present,  (present,  remember,  by 


REVIVALS    OF    RELIGION.  131 

act  and  sway,)  inhabiting  all  changes  ?  The  notion  of  a  second 
cause  in  nature,  consistent  with  the  divine  omnipresence. — 
meaning  any  thing  by  the  term, — it  is  somewhat  difficult  to 
frame.  And  as  God's  omnipresence  is  an  undoubted  truth,  it 
"  i  better  and  more  philosophic  not  to  displace  it,  by  one  that  is 
Joubtful. 

But  we  pass  on.    And  it  is  instructing  to  advert  as  we  pass, 
to  the  various  and  periodical  changes  of  temperament  which 
affect  men  in  other  matters  than  religion.    Sometimes  one  sub- 
ject has  a  peculiar  interest  to  the  mind,  sometimes  another. 
Sometimes  the  feelings  chime  with  music,  which  at  others  is 
not  agreeable.     Society  of  a  given  tone  is  shunned  to-day, 
though  eagerly  sought  yesterday.     These   fluctuations  are 
epidemical,  too,  extending  to  whole  communities,  and  infecting 
them  with  an  ephemeral  interest  in  various  subjects,  which 
afterwards  they  wonder  at  themselves,  and  can  in  no  way 
recall.     No  observing  public  speaker  ever  failed  to  be   con- 
vinced, that  man  is  a  being,  mentally,  of  moods  and  phases, 
which  it  were  as  vain  to  attempt  the  control  of,  as  to  push 
aside  the  stars.    These  fluctuations,  or  mental  tides,  are  due, 
perhaps,  to  physical  changes,  and  perhaps  not.     They  roll 
round  the  earth  like  invisible  waves,  and  the  chemist  and  phy- 
sician tax  their  skill  in  vain  to  find  the  subtle  powers  that 
sway  us.     We  only  know,  that  God  is  present  to  these  fluctu- 
ations, whatever  their  real  nature,  and  that  they  are  all  inhab- 
ited by  the  divine  power.    Is  it  incredible,  then,  that  this  same 
divine  power  should  produce  periodical  influences  in  the  matter 
of  religion, — times  of  peculiar,  various,  and  periodical  interest  1 
For  ourselves  we  are  obliged  to  confess,  that  we  strongly  sus- 
pect that  sort  of  religion  which  boasts  of  no  excitements,  no 
temporary  and  changing  states ;  for  we  observe  that  it  is  only 
towards  nothing,  or  about  nothing,  that  we  have  always  the 
same  feeling. 
Need  we  say,  again,  that  progress  towards  some  end,  which 


132  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY    OP 

is  the  law  of  all  God's  works  and  agencies,  necessarily  involves 
variety  and  change.  Spring,  for  example  is  the  first  stage  of  a 
progress.  The  newness,  therefore,  of  spring,  the  first  begin- 
nings of  growth,  must  wax  old  and  change  their  habit.  So  it  is 
impossible,  that  the  first  feelings  of  religious  interest  in  the 
heart  should  remain.  There  is  a  degree  of  excitation  in  the 
strangeness  of  new  feelings,  and  so  likewise  in  the  early  scenes 
of  a  revival  of  religion,  which  belongs  to  their  novelty,  and 
which  is  by  no  means  inconsiderable  or  improper.  Such  is  hu- 
man nature,  that  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  In  fact,  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt,  that  God,  in  framing  the  plan  or  system  of  his 
spiritual  agencies,  ordained  fluctuations  and  changing  types  of 
spiritual  exercise,  that  he  might  take  advantage,  at  intervals, 
of  novelty  in  arresting  and  swaying  the  minds  of  men.  These 
are  the  spring-times  of  his  truth,  otherwise  in  danger  of  uni- 
form staleness.  Thus  he  rouses  the  spiritual  lethargy  of  men 
and  communities  and  sways  their  will  to  himself,  by  aid  of 
scenes  and  manifestations  not  ordinary  or  familiar.  Nor  is  it 
any  thing  derogatory  to  the  divine  agency  in  the  case,  that  the 
spiritual  spring  cannot  remain  perpetual ;  for  there  is  a  pro- 
gress in  God's  works,  and  he  goes  on  through  change  and 
multiform  culture  to  ripen  his  ends.  Doubtless,  too,  there  may 
be  a  degree  of  sound  feeling,  apart  from  all  novelty,  in  a  revi- 
val of  religion,  which  human  nature  is  incompetent  perma- 
nently to  sustain ;  just  as  one  may  have  a  degree  of  intellec- 
tual excitement  and  intensity  of  operation,  which  he  cannot 
sustain,  but  which  is  nevertheless  a  sound  and  healthy  activity. 
In  writing  a  sermon,  for  example,  every  minister  draws  on  a 
fund  of  excitability,  which  he  knows  cannot  be  kept  up  beyond 
a  certain  bound,  and  this  without  any  derogation  from  his  pro- 
per sanity. 

But  we  come  to  a  stage  in  the  subject,  where  the  advantage 
of  our  doctrine  of  spiritual  agency  is  to  be  more  manifest.  God 
has  a  given  purpose  to  execute,  we  have  said,  in  those  who 
have  entered  on  the  religious  life,  viz.,  to  produce  character 


REVIVALS    OP    RELIGION.  133 

in  them.    To  this  end  he  dwells  in  them,  and  this  is  the  object 
of 'his  spiritual  culture.    And  here,  at  the  beginning,  he  encoun- 
ters the  general  truth,  that  varieties  of  experience  and  exer- 
cise are  necessary  to  the  religious  character.    How  then  shall 
he  adjust  the  scale  of  his  action,  if  not  to  produce  all  such  vari- 
eties as  are  necessary  for  his  object?     We  have  just  remarked 
on  the  changes  of  temperament  in  men  and  communities,  by 
which  now  one,  now  another  theme  is  brought  to  find  a  respon- 
sive note  of  interest     What  is  the  end  of  this  ?    Obviously  it 
is,  that  we  may  be  practiced  in  all  the  many  colored  varieties 
of  feeling,  and  led  over  a  wide  empire  of  experience.    Were  it 
not  for  this,— or  if  men  were  to  live  on,  from  childhood  to  the 
grave,  in  the  same  mood  of  feeling,  and  holding  fast  to  the 
same  unvarying  topic  of  interest,  they  would  grow  to  be  little 
more  than  animals  of  one  thought.    To  prevent  which,  and 
rip  en  what  we  call  natural  character  to  extension  and  matu- 
rity, God  is  ever  leading  us  round  and  round  invisibly,  by  new 
successions  of  providence  and  new  affinities  of  feeling.     Pre- 
cisely the  same  necessity  requires,  that  religious  character  be 
trained  up  under  varieties  of  experience,  and  shaped  on  all 
sides  by  manifold  workings  of  the  Spirit.    Now  excitements 
must  be  applied  to  kindle,  now  checks  to  inspire  caution  or  invig- 
orate dependence.    Now  the  intellect  must  be  fed  by  a  season 
of  study  and  reflection ;  now  the  affections  freshened  by  a  sea- 
son of  social  and  glowing  ardor.    By  one  means  bad  habits  are 
to  be  broken  up,  by  another  good  habits  consolidated.    Love,  it 
is  true,  must  reign  in  the  heart  through  all  such  varieties ;  but 
the  principle  of  supreme  love  is  one,  that  can  subsist  in  a  thou- 
sand different  connections  of  interest  and  temperaments  of  feel- 
ing.   At  one  time  it  demands  for  its  music  a  chorus  of  swelling 
voices,  to  bear  aloft  its  exulting  testimony  of  praise;  at  another 
it  may  chime  rather  with  the  soft  and  melancholy  wail  just 
dying  on  its  ear.     And  so,  in  like  manner,  it  needs  a  diversity 
of  times,  exercises,  duties  and  holy  pleasures.    It  needs,  and 
12 


134  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY   OP 

for  that  reason  it  has,  not  only  revivals  and  times  of  tranquillity, 
but  every  sort  of  revival,  every  sort  of  tranquility.  Sometimes 
we  are  revived  individually,  sometimes  as  churches,  sometimes 
ae  a  whole  people,  and  we  have  all  degrees  of  excitation,  all 
manner  of  incidents.  Our  more  tranquil  periods  are  sometimes 
specially  occupied,  or  ought  to  be,  in  the  correction  of  evil 
habits ;  or  we  are  particularly  interested  in  the  study  of  reli- 
gious doctrines  necessary  to  the  vigor  of  our  growth  and  use- 
fulness; or  we  are  interested  to  acquire  useful  knowledge  of  a 
more  general  nature,  in  order  to  our  public  influence,  and  the 
efficient  discharge  of  our  offices.  In  revivals  we  generally  pre- 
fer the  more  social  spheres  of  religious  exercise ;  so  now  the 
more  private  and  solitary  experiences  may  be  cultivated. 
Such  is  the  various  travail,  which  God  has  given  to  the  sons  of 
men,  to  be  exercised  therewith. 

Another  end  prosecuted  by  the  Spirit,  in  his  work,  is  the 
empowering  of  the  Christian  body,  and  the  extension  of  good, 
through  them  and  otherwise,  to  the  hearts  of  others.  Here 
also  there  is  no  doubt,  that  changes  and  seasons  of  various  ex- 
ercise, like  these  called  revivals,  add  to  the  real  power  of  the 
faith.  We  are  so  prone  to  think  nothing  of  that  which  always 
wears  exactly  the  same  color  and  look,  that  holiness  itself  need 
to  change  its  habit  and  voice  to  command  notice,  or  impress 
itself  on  the  attention.  The  power  too  of  the  Christian  body 
rests,  in  the  main,  on  its  appearing  to  the  world  to  be  inhabited 
and  swayed  by  an  agency  above  nature.  And  this  can  never 
appear,  except  by  means  of  changes  and  periodical  exaltations 
therein.  Nature  would  make  no  manifestation  of  him  who 
dwells  in  her  forms,  if  all  stood  motionless ;  if  the  sun  stood  fast 
and  clear  in  everlasting  noon  ;  if  there  were  no  births,  decays, 
explosions,  surprises.  Nature  is  called  the  garment  of  the 
Almighty,  but  if  there  were  no  motion  under  the  garment,  it 
would  seem  a  shroud  rather  than  a  garment  of  life.  God  is 
manifested  in  nature  by  the  wheeling  spheres,  light,  shade, 
tranquility,  storm, — all  the  beauties  and  terrors  of  time.  So  the 


REVIVALS    OF    RELIGION.  135 

Spirit  will  reveal  his  divine  presence  through  the  church,  by 
times  of  holy  excitement,  times  of  reflection,  times  of  solitary 
communion,  times  of  patient  hope.  A  church  standing  always 
in  the  same  exact  posture  and  mold  of  aspect,  would  be  only  a 
pillar  of  salt  in  the  eyes  of  men,  it  would  attract  no  attention, 
reveal  no  inhabitation  of  God's  power.  But  suppose,  that  now, 
in  a  period  of  no  social  excitement,  it  is  seen  to  be  growing  in 
attachment  to  the  bible  and  the  house  of  God,  storing  itself 
with  divine  or  useful  knowledge,  manifesting  a  heavenly-mind- 
ed habit  in  the  midst  of  a  general  rage  for  gain,  devising  plans 
of  charity  to  the  poor  and  afflicted,  relbrming  offensive  habits 
chastening  bosom  sins,— suppose,  in  short,  that  principles 
adopted  in  a  former  revival  are  seen  to  hold  fast  as  principles, 
to  prove  their  reality  and  unfold  their  beauty,  when  there  is  no 
longer  any  excitement  to  sustain  them, — here  the  worth  and 
reality  of  religious  principles  are  established.  And  now  let  the 
Spirit  move  this  solid  enginery  once  more  into  glowing  activ- 
ity, let  the  church,  thus  strengthened,  be  lifted  into  spiritual 
courage  and  exaltation,  and  its  every  look  and  act  will  seem  to 
be  inhabited  by  a  divine  power, — it  will  be  as  the  chariot  of 
God,  and  before  it  even  stubbornness  will  tremble. 

We  have  spoken  already  of  the  probable  fact,  that  God  has 
designed  to  take  advantage  of  novelty  in  his  plan  of  spiritual 
action.  Quite  as  great  an  addition  is  made  to  the  efficacy  of 
his  operations,  by  the  advantage  he  takes  of  the  social  instincts 
of  men.  There  is  no  impression  which  is  not  powerfully  aug- 
mented by  participation.  What  a  community,  what  a  crowded 
assembly  feels  is  powerfully  felt.  Hence  it  is  an  article  of  the 
divine  economy  in  revivals,  that  whole  communities  shall  be 
moved  together,  as  it  were  by  common  gales  of  the  Spirit. 
The  hold  thus  taken  of  men  is  powerful,  often  to  a  degree 
even  tremendous,  and  many  a  covenant  with  death  is  disan- 
nulled which  no  uniform  or  unvaried  tenor  of  divine  agency, 
no  mere  personal  and  private  dealing  of  the  Sprit,  would  ever 
have  shaken. 


136  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY   OF 

There  is  one  more  advantage  taken  of  men  by  periodical  or 
temporary  dispensations,  in  the  very  fact,  that  they  are  tempo- 
rary. The  judgment  and  observation  of  many  who  preach  the 
gospel  will  bear  us  witness,  that  the  certainty  felt  by  those 
who  are  at  any  time  enlightened  and  drawn  by  the  Spirit,  that 
they  will  not  long  be  dealt  with  in  the  same  manner  as  now, 
that  by  delay  they  may  dismiss  the  present  grace,  and  lose  the 
most  favored  moment  given  them  to  secure  their  salvation,  is 
the  strongest  and  most  urgent  of  all  motives.  This,  in  fact,  is 
absolutely  requisite  to  the  stress  and  cogency  of  all  means  and 
agencies.  Such  is  the  procrastinating  spirit  of  men,  so  fast 
bound  are  they  in  the  love  of  sin,  that  however  deeply  they 
may  feel  their  own  guilty  and  lost  estate,  nothing  but  the  fact 
that  God  is  now  giving  them  opportunities  and  aids  which  are 
peculiar  and  temporary,  would  ever  foreclose  delay.  We  need 
look  no  farther  to  see  the  folly  of  supposing,  that  God  must  not 
act  periodically  or  variously,  if  he  act  at  all,  in  renewing  men. 
Why  act  uniformly  when  it  would  defeat  all  the  ends  of  action  ? 

This  attempt  to  exhibit  the  spiritual  economy  of  God  in  revi- 
vals, might  be  prosecuted  much  farther.  It  would  be  useful, 
too,  if  we  could  stop  here  to  admire  the  wisdom  of  God's  spirit- 
ual husbandry,  the  systematic  grandeur  with  which  he  com- 
passes all  his  ends,  and  the  illustrious  honor,  that  shines  in  his 
works  of  grace. 

But  we  must  hasten  forward.  And  here,  on  the  second  side, 
or  the  side  of  dishonor,  we  pass  to  views  and  exhibitions  less 
agreeable,  though  not,  we  hope,  less  welcome. 

We  should  be  sorry,  if  in  what  we  have  advanced,  a  shadow 
of  countenance  has  been  given  to  the  impression  that  the 
Christian  is  allowed,  at  some  times,  to  be  less  religious  than  at 
others.  He  is  under  God's  authority  and  bound  by  his  law  at 
all  times.  He  must  answer  to  God  for  each  moment  and 
thought  of  his  life.  His  covenant  oath  consecrates  all  his  life 


REVIVALS    OF    RELIGION.  137 

to  God,  and  stipulates  for  no  intermission  of  service.  At  no 
time  can  he  shrink  from  religious  obligation,  without  dishonor 
to  his  good  faith,  together  with  a  loss  of  character  and  of  God's 
favor.  Furthermore  still,  it  is  his  duty  and  privilege  ever  to  be 
filled  with  the  Spirit.  The  believer  is  one  chosen  for  his  in- 
dwelling. He  is  consecrated  to  be  the  divine  temple,  and  God 
will  never  leave  his  temple,  except  he  is  driven  away  by  profa- 
nation—grieved away.  "I  have  somewhat  against  thee," 
said  the  Saviour,  "because  thou  hast  left  thy  first  love."  He 
did  not  require,  of  course,  that  the  novelty  and  first  excitement 
of  feeling  should  last,  but  that  love,  the.  real  principle  of  love, 
should  lose  ground  in  them  was  criminal.  Let  us  not  be  mis- 
taken. The  Christian  is  as  much  under  obligation  at  one  time 
as  at  another,  though  not  under  obligation  to  be  ever  doing 
the  same  things— no  intermission,  no  wavering  or  slackness 
is  permitted  him ;  nay,  he  is  bound  *to  increase,  or  gather 
strength  in  his  religious  principles,  every  day  and  hour  of  his 
existence. 

But  how  shall  we  harmonize  this  with  what  we  have  ad- 
vanced in  the  first  side  of  our  subject?  The  answer  is  this — 
God  favors  and  appoints  different  moods  or  kinds  of  religious 
interest,  but  not  backslidings,  or  declensions  of  religious  prin- 
ciple. There  are  diversities  of  gifts  but  the  same  Spirit. 
There  are  diversities  of  operation,  but  it  is  the  same  God 
which  worketh  all  and  in  all.  There  is  a  common  mistake  of 
supposing  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  present  in  times  only  of  re- 
ligious exaltation,  or  if  it  be  true,  that  such  need  be  the  case. 
It  is  conceivable,  that  He  may  be  doing  as  glorious  a  work  in  the 
soul,  when  there  is  but  a  very  gentle,  or  almost  no  excitement 
of  feeling.  He  may  now  be  leading  the  mind  after  instruction, 
teaching  the  believer  how  to  collect  himself  and  establish  a 
regimen  over  his  lawless  will  and  passions,  searching  the 
motives,  inducing  a  habit  of  reflection,  teaching  how  to  carry 
principles  without  excitement,  drawing  more  into  communion 
12* 


138  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY    OP 

perhaps  with  God,  and  less  for  the  time  with  men.  And  while 
he  conducts  the  disciple  through  these  rounds  of  heavenly  dis- 
cipline, we  are  by  no  means  to  think,  that  he  is,  of  course,  less 
religious,  or  has  less  supreme  love  to  God,  than  he  had  in  the 
more  fervid  season  of  revival.  A  soldier  is  as  much  a  soldier 
when  he  encamps  as  when  he  fights,  when  he  stands  with  his 
loins  girt  about,  and  his  feet  shod  with  the  preparation,  as 
when  he  quenches  the  fiery  darts  of  the  enemy.  The  Chris- 
tian warfare  is  not  all  battle.  There  are  times  in  it  for  polish- 
ing the  armor,  forming  the  tactics,  and  feeding  the  vigor  of 
the  host. 

These  remarks  bring  us  to  conclude,  that  there  is,  in  what 
we  call  revivals  of  religion,  something  of  a  periodical  nature, 
which  belongs  to  the  appointed  plan  of  God  in  his  moral  opera- 
tions ;  but  as  far  as  they  are  what  the  name  imports,  revivals 
of  religion,  that  is,  of*  the  principle  of  love  and  obedience, 
they  are  linked  with  dishonor  ;  so  far  they  are  made  necessary 
by  the  instability  and  bad  faith  of  Christ's  disciples.  But  here 
it  must  be  noted,  that  the  dishonor  does  not  belong  to  the  revi- 
val, but  to  the  decay  of  principle  in  the  disciple,  which  needs 
reviving.  There  ought  to  be  no  declension  of  real  principle; 
but  if  there  is,  no  dishonor  attaches  to  God  in  recovering  his 
disciple  from  it,  but  the  more  illustrious  honor.  Thus  it  is  very 
often  true,  when  a  revival  seems  to  have  an  extreme  character, 
that  the  fact  is  due,  not  to  the  real  state  produced,  but  to  the 
previous  fall,  the  dearth  and  desolation  with  which  it  is  con- 
trasted. And  commonly,  if  the  ridicule,  thrown  upon  a  revi- 
val, were  thrown  upon  the  worldliness,  the  dishonorable  loose- 
ness of  life  and  principle  which  preceded,  it  would  not  be 
misplaced. 

We  now  pass  on  to  a  stage,  in  which  dishonor  attaches  to 
the  scene  of  revival  itself.  This  is  when  it  takes  an  extreme 
character,  which  is  not  given  it  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  origi- 
nates in  some  mistake  of  opinion,  or  extravagance  of  conduct 
in  the  subjects  and  conductors.  We  cannot  pretend  here  to 


REVIVALS    OF    RELIGION.  139 

specify  every  sort  of  error  which  may  vitiate  a  revival,  or  give 
it  an  extreme  character ;  but  we  will  note  a  few  leading  mis- 
takes which  have  a  prevalent  influence. 

And  a  capital  mistake  is  that  of  supposing,  that  we  ought  to 
have  a  revival,  so  called,  or  the  exact  mood  of  a  revival,  at  all 
times.    It  is  taken  for  granted,  when  the  peculiar  fervor  of  the 
work  begins  to  abate,  that  the  disciples  are  sinking  into  sloth 
and  criminal  decay,  and  never,  that  the  Spirit  is  now  giving  a 
varied  complexion  to  his  work.    Prodigious  efforts  are  made 
to  rally  the  church  to  renewed  activity.    The  voice  of  suppli- 
cation is  tried.    But  all  in  vain, — it  is  praying  against  God  and 
nature,  and  must  be  vain.    Not,  that  it  must  be  vain  in  every 
case ;  but  only  in  cases  where  God's  plan  is  otherwise  ordered, 
or  where  the  natural  excitabilities  of  the  church  are  so  far  ex- 
hausted as  to  demand  a  different  sort  of  exercise.    Effort  spent 
in  this  way,  produces  additional  exhaustion  and  discourage- 
ment.   A  tedious  intermission  of  life  follows.    At  length  the 
susceptibilities  of  nature  to  excitement  and  attention  recruit 
themselves,  as  by  a  very  long  sleep,  and  there  flames  out  an- 
other period  of  over-worked  zeal  to  be  succeeded  as  before. 
If,  instead  of  such  a  course,  the  disciple  was  taught,  as  the 
revival,  so  called,  declines,  that  God  is  now  leading  him  into  a 
new  variety  of  spiritual  experience,  where  he  has  duties  to  dis- 
charge, as  clear,  as  high,  as  in  the  revival  itself;  if  he  were 
encouraged  to  feel,  that  God  is  still  with  him ;  if  he  were  shown 
what  to  do  and  how  to  improve  the  new  variety  of  state, — 
taught  the  art  of  growth  in  the  long  run, — how  to  make  the 
dews,  the  rain,  the  sun,  and  the  night,  all  lend  their  aid  alike ; 
in  a  word,  if  he  were  taught  the  great  Christian  art  of  discern- 
ing the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  so  that  he  shall  be  ever  pliant 
thereto,  and  not  to  pass  reluctantly  into  his  progressive  moods 
of  culture  and  duty ;  can  any  one  fail  to  see,  that  extremities 
of  action  would  thus  be  greatly  reduced  ?    He  has  not  some 
etrained  and  forced  sort  of  religion  to  live  always,  which,  after 


140  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY    OF 

all,  no  straining  or  forcing  can  make  live.  The  pendulum 
swings  in  smaller  vibrations.  There  is  no  wide  chasm  of  dis- 
honor, no  strained  pitch  of  extravagance,  but  only  a  sacred 
ebb  and  flow  of  various  but  healthful  zeal.  It  is  the  great  evil 
in  that  sort  of  teaching,  which  insists  on  the  duty  of  being 
always  in  what  is  called  a  revival  state,  that  it  tries  to  force  an 
impossible  religion.  The  supposed  obligation  is  assented  to, 
and  the  Christian  struggles  hard  to  answer  it.  But  nature 
struggles  against  him,  being  utterly  unable  to  keep  up  such  a 
state.  At  length  he  yields,  in  a  perplexed  and  half-despairing 
manner,  not  knowing  what  it  means.  Still  he  owns  very  duti- 
fully, that  it  is  his  sin,  and  as  he  tries  no  more  to  avoid  it,  he 
seems  to  himself  to  be  sinning  by  actual  and  daily  consent ; 
and  this  becomes  in  fact  the  real  temper  of  his  heart.  He 
gives  over  all  care  of  his  spirit,  violates  his  conscience  in  other 
ways,  since  he  must  do  it  in  one,  and  sinks  into  extreme 
declension.  More  judicious  views  of  duty  would  have  saved 
him. 

The  feeling,  extensively  prevalent,  that  if  any  thing  is  to  be 
done  in  religion,  some  great  operation  must  be  started,  is  an- 
other pernicious  mistake.  The  ordinary  must  give  way  to  the 
extraordinary.  Machinery  must  be  constructed,  and  a  grand 
palpable  onset  moved.  Let  it  not  be  suspected  that  we  are 
afraid  of  all  stir  and  excitement.  The  views  advanced  in  the 
former  part  of  our  subject  should  teach  us  higher  wisdom. 
The  greatest  and  best  actions  have  ever  been  performed  in 
stages  of  excited  feeling  and  high  personal  exaltation.  Noth- 
ing was  ever  achieved,  in  the  way  of  a  great  and  radical 
change  in  men  or  communities,  without  some  degree  of  excite- 
ment ;  and  if  any  one  expects  to  carry  on  the  cause  of  salva- 
tion, by  a  steady  rolling  on  the  same  dead  level,  and  fears  con- 
tinually lest  the  axles  wax  hot  and  kindle  into  a  flame,  he  is 
too  timorous  to  hold  the  reins  in  the  Lord's  chariot.  What  we 
complain  of  and  resist  is,  the  artificial  firework,  the  extraordi- 


REVIVALS   OF    RELIGION  141 

nary,  combined  jump  and  stir,  supposed  to  be  requisite  when 
any  thing  is  to  be  done.  It  seems  often  not  to  be  known,  that 
there  is  a  more  efficacious  way,  and  that  the  extraordinary  got 
up,  in  action,  as  in  rhetoric,  is  impotence  itself.  It  must  come 
to  pass  naturally,  or  emerge  as  a  natural  crisis  of  the  ordinary, 
if  it  is  to  have  any  consequence.  How  often  would  the  minis- 
ter of  Christ,  for  example,  who  is  trying  to  marshal  a  move- 
ment, do  a  more  effectual  work  in  simply  reviewing  his  own 
deficiences  of  heart  and  duty,  charging  himself  anew  with  his 
responsibilities,  and  devoting  himself  more  faithfully  to  his  peo- 
ple and  to  God's  whole  truth.  A  secret  work  thus  begun,  is 
enough  to  heave  in  due  time,  a  whole  community  ;  and  it  is  the 
more  powerful,  because  it  moves  in  the  legitimate  order  of 
action.  It  begins,  bowing  to  duty  first  and  chief,  and  leaves 
results  for  the  most  part  to  come  in  their  natural  shape.  It 
works  in  the  hand  of  God,  trustfully,  humbly,  pertinaciously, 
and  following  whithersoever  he  leads.  And  when  God  leads 
his  servant,  as  certainly  he  will,  into  a  crisis  of  great  moment, 
he  is  in  it  naturally,  he  molds  it  unto  himself,  as  if  constituted 
for  the  time  to  be  its  presiding  power. 

Where  too  much  is  made  of  conversions,  or  where  they  are 
taken  as  the  measure  of  all  good,  it  has  a  very  injurious  influ- 
ence. The  saying  constantly  repeated  and  without  qualifica- 
tion, that  it  is  the  great  business  of  the  gospel  and  of  Christian 
effort  to  convert  men,  has  about  as  much  error  as  truth  in  it. 
As  well  might  it  be  said,  that  the  great  business  of  travelers  is 
to  set  out  on  journeys.  The  great  business  of  the  gospel  is  to 
form  men  to  God.  Conversion,  if  it  be  any  thing  which  it 
ought  to  be,  is  the  beginning  of  the  work,  and  the  convert  is  a 
disciple,  a  scholar,  just  beginning  to  learn.  If  all  the  attention 
of  the  church  then  be  drawn  to  the  single  point  of  securing  con- 
versions, without  any  regard  to  the  ripening  of  them ;  if  it  be 
supposed,  that  nothing  is  of  course  doing  when  there  are  no 
conversions  ;  if  there  is  no  thought  of  cultivation,  no  valuation 
of  knowledge  and  character,  no  conviction  of  the  truth,  that 


142  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY    OP 

one  Christian  well  formed  and  taken  care  of  is  worth  a  hundred 
mere  beginners,  who  are  in  danger  perhaps  of  proving,  that 
they  never  begun  at  all;  if  revivals  themselves  are  graduated 
in  their  value,  only  by  the  number  of  converts,  and  Christians 
in  declension  are  called  to  repentance  only  for  the  sake  of  the 
unconverted  public ;  the  whole  strain  of  movement  and  im- 
pression is  one-sided,  distorted,  and  tinctured  with  inherent 
extravagance. 

We  name  only  one  more  mistake  having  a  pernicious  influ- 
ence on  the  character  of  revivals,  which  is,  the  want  of  a  judi- 
cious estimate  of  the  advantages  to  be  gained,  in  times  of  non- 
revival.  This  is  the  great  practical  error  of  our  times.  Let 
it  startle  no  one,  if  we  declare  our  conviction,  that  religion  has 
as  deep  an  interest  in  the  proper  conduct  of  times  of  non-revi- 
val, as  in  these  periods  of  glowing  excitement.  For  many  reli- 
gious purposes,  and.  those  not  the  least  important,  a  revival  is 
less  advantageous  than  other  times.  There  is  very  little  trial 
of  principle  in  a  revival,  as  is  proved  by  facts  always  devel- 
oped afterwards,  in  some  of  the  brightest  exam  pies  of  supposed 
conversion.  The  time,  pre-eminently  the  time  to  strengthen 
principle  and  consolidate  character,  is,  when  there  is  no  public 
excitement.  And  for  this  reason,  God's  spiritual  husbandry 
includes  such  times,  and  makes  them  so  prolonged  as  to  consti- 
tute the  greater  part  of  life,  showing  very  conclusively  the  esti- 
mate he  has  of  them.  At  such  times,  the  disciple  is  occupied 
more  in  study  and  doctrine,  in  self-inspection,  in  contemplation 
of  God,  in  acting  from  principle  separately  from  impulse.  In 
times  of  revival,  foundations  are  broken  up,  and  new  impulses 
received;  row,  those  impulses  are  consolidated  into  principle, 
and  permanently  enthroned  in  the  heart.  This,  at  least,  ought 
to  be  so.  And  because  it  is  not,  revivals,  when  they  come, 
have  less  power,  and  a  more  limited  sphere  of  influence.  They 
are  looked  on,  often,  by  those  who  weigh  their  effects,  as  only 
shallow  frets  of  excitement,  and  in  many  cases,  none  but  the 
less  considerate  and  feebler  class  of  minds  feel  their  power. 


REVIVALS    OF    REEIGION.  143 

Let  not  the'intervals  of  revival  be  undervalued,  or  the  duties 
belonging  to  them  discs  teemed.  Great  occasions  are  not  ne- 
cess iry  to  good  actions.  To  every  thing  there  is  a  season,  and 
a  time  to  every  purpose  under  the  sun.  HE  HATH  MADE  EVERY 

THING    BEAUTIFUL   IN    HIS   TIME. 

We  have  thus  attempted  to  ascertain  the  divine  economy  in 
revivals  of  religion.  We  see  them  to  be  in  no  degree  desul- 
tory, except  as  they  partake  of  human  errors  and  infirmities. 
They  lie  imbedded  in  that  great  system  of  universal  being  and 
event,  which  the  divine  omnipresence  fills,  actuates  and  warms. 
Here  they  are  cherished,  and  will  be,  as  long  as  the  redemp- 
tion of  man  is  dear  to  the  eternal  heart,  and  constitutes  one  of 
the  ends  of  God's  pursuit.  As  the  gospel  is  enlarged  in  the 
world,  and  the  Christian  mind  enlightened,  they  will  gradually 
lose  their  extremities  and  dishonorable  incidents,  and  will  con- 
stitute an  ebb  and  flow,  measured  only  by  the  pulses  of  the 
Spirit.  The  church  will  then  make  a  glowing,  various  and 
happy  impression.  Her  armor,  though  changed,  will  always 
shine,  and  will  have  a  celestial  temper  in  it.  Changing  her 
front,  she  will  yet  always  present  a  host  clad  in  the  full  panoply 
of  God. 

But  really  to  act  on  views  like  these,  and  give  them  their 
legitimate  effect,  would  require  the  ministry,  or  many  of  them, 
to  change  somewhat  the  tone,  and  enlarge  the  sphere  of  their 
instructions.  Many  would  need  to  acquire  a  nicer,  more  com- 
plete and  proportional  sense  of  character  themselves,  and  thus 
learn  to  go  beyond  the  line  of  exercises  which  only  urge  repen- 
tance, and  test  the  state  of  their  people.  By  this  confined 
method,  this  continual  beating  on  the  same  spot,  they  only  pro- 
duce a  sense  of  soreness,  which  recoils  from  their  attempts.  It 
were  only  necessary  to  open  the  epistles  of  Paul,  we  should 
suppose,  to  see,  that  he  moved  into  a  range  of  topics  and  du- 
ties which  find  no  place  in  the  concern  of  many  modern  preach- 
ers,—discontent,  envy,  anger,  jealousy,  ambition,  gentleness, 


144  SPIRITUAL    ECONOMY    OF 

purity,  modesty,  decency,  candor,  industry, — a  catalogue  that 
cannot  be  recited.  We  see  at  once,  that  he  does  not  regard  the 
religious  character  in  his  converts  as  a  thing  by  itself,  a  con- 
version well  tested  and  followed  by  a  few  duties  specially  reli- 
gious. He  considered  the  whole  character  of  the  disciple, — 
mind,  manners,  habits,  principles, — as  the  Lord's  property. 
He  felt  that  the  gospel  was  intended  and  fitted  to  act  on  every 
thing  evil  and  ungraceful  in  man's  character,  and  applied  it  to 
that  purpose.  And  thus  he  sought  to  present  his  disciples  per- 
fect and  complete  in  all  the  will  of  God, — a  much  more  difficult 
and  laborious  way  of  preaching  than  the  one  to  which  indo- 
lence, we  fear,  now  adds  prevalence.  Let  the  minister  of  truth, 
then,  occupy  such  intervals  as  are  suitable,  and  which  we  have 
supposed  to  be  ordered  of  the  Spirit  for  that  purpose,  in  forming 
the  character  of  his  people  to  things  lovely  and  of  good  report. 
Let  him  take  advantage  of  scripture  history,  and  especially  of 
the  history  of  Christ's  life  and  manners,  to  draw  out  illustra- 
tions of  character,  and  beget  what  is  so  much  needed  by  the 
Christian  body,  a  sense  of  character, — of  moral  beauty  and 
completeness.  Let  him  not  use  the  parable  of  the  talents  al- 
ways to  enforce  the  duty  of  usefulness.  Sometimes,  at  least, 
let  mention  be  made  of  doubling  the  talents,  making  the  ten 
twenty,  the  five  ten.  Let  him  follow  the  people  into  their  busi- 
ness, into  their  civil  duties,  and  especially  into  their  domestic 
relations,  shewing  the  manner  in  which  children  may  be  trained 
up  as  Christians  in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord,  seeking  to  sur- 
round the  Christian  homes  with  Christian  graces,  teaching 
how  to  make  them  pleasant  to  the  youth,  and  at  the  same  time 
spiritually  healthful.  And  let  him  do  all  this  in  the  manner  of 
Paul  or  Oberlin,  as  a  work  of  the  Spirit,  a  work  into  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  leads  him  as  truly  as  into  any  other.  The  tendrils 
of  the  vines  are  small  things,  but  yet  they  support  the  grapes. 
In  like  manner  this  disposition  to  adorn  the  doctrine  of  Christ 
by  a  nice  obedience  and  a  faithful  copying  of  the  Saviour,  is  that 


REVIVALS   OP    RELIGION.  145 

which  knits  the  Christian,  tendril-like,  to  God's  support.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  gross  movement,  always  aiming  at  a  chief 
point  of  Christian  character,  without  any  care  to  finish  a  Chris- 
tian conscience  and  a  Christian  taste,  is  only  trying  to  make  the 
vines  adhere  by  their  trunks. 

We  are  not  without  a  sense  of  deep  responsibility  in  giving 
these  views  to  the  public.  If  they  are  misunderstood  or  mis- 
applied, they  may  work  incredible  injury.  We  are  anxious, 
indeed,  lest  they  be  perverted  to  the  justification  of  real  declen- 
sion from  God  and  made  to  sanction  a  lower  and  perhaps  more 
inconstant  piety  than  we  now  have.  And  yet  we  are  sure  that 
they  provide  for  a  higher  class  of  attainments,  a  more  constant 
growth  towards  God,  and  favor  the  preparation  of  a  new  order 
of  Christians  who  shall  really  walk  by  faith  from  year  to  year. 
In  showing  the  use  and  necessity  of  times  of  non  revival,  we 
do  not  justify  the  present  habit  of  Christian  declension  in  these 
intervals ;  we  rather  show  the  sinfulness  of  it,  that  it  is  unne- 
cessary, that  it  is  a  rank  abuse  of  sacred  means  and  privileges. 
We  make  it  possible  for  the  Christian  at  such  times  to  be  as 
holy,  to  do  as  good  a  work,  to  have  the  communion  of  God  as 
really  as  in  a  revival,  and  since  it  is  possible  to  be  done,  it  is 
only  faithlessness,  without  excuse,  when  it  is  otherwise. 

Our  doctrine  naturally  terminates  here,— in  proving  it  to  be 
the  great  business  and  art  of  the  Christian  to  watch  for  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit,  and  shape  the  life  evermore  pliantly  thereto. 
They  that  walk  in  the  Spirit,  shall  be  led  by  the  Spirit;  this 
we  firmly  believe.  Hence  the  Saviour  was  at  great  pains  to 
inculcate  on  the  disciples,  readiness,  watching  for  their  Lord's 
coming,  and  observation  of  the  signs  of  the  times.  And  his 
Spirit  is  to  help  their  infirmity  of  discernment,  and  guide  them 
by  his  intercessions  or  inward  intercourses,  to  such  praying, 
such  work  and  occupations  as  are  according  to  God's  will.  I 
will  guide  thee  with  mine  eye,  is  the  sure  declaration  of  God- 
But  in  order  to  this,  the  Christian  must  look  at  the  indications 

of  his  eye ;  and  in  order  to  this  he  must  have  a  single  eye  him- 
13 


146  SPIRITUAL   ECONOMY,   «tc. 

self.  He  must  walk  by  faith,  he  must  never  acquiesce  in  sin, 
he  must  never  allow  the  world  to  get  dominion  over  him.  Do- 
ing this,  he  will  be  directed  what  to  do,  where  to  go,  exercised 
in  the  best  ways,  perform  the  best  service.  The  EYE  OF  THE 
LORD  will  lead  him  about  through  all  the  rounds  of  the  Spirit, 
and  the  glory  of  the  divine  holiness  will  ever  encompass  him. 

O  Christian !  man  renewed  by  grace,  dost  thou  indeed  be- 
lieve that  God  inhabits  thee  with  his  holiness,  and  makes  thee 
his  temple  ?  Be  thou  then  a  temple  indeed,  a  sacred  place  to 
him.  Exclude  covetousness  ;  make  not  thy  Father's  house  a 
house  of  merchandize;  deem  every  sin  a  sacrilege.  Let  all 
thy  thoughts  within,  like  white  robed  priests,  move  round  the 
altar  and  keep  the  fire  burning.  Let  thine  affections  be  always 
a  cloud,  filling  the  room  and  inwrapping  thy  priest-like 
thoughts.  Let  thy  hallowed  desires  be  ever  fanning  the 
mercy-seat  with  their  wings.* 

*  As  nine  years  have  elapsed  since  this  article  was  written,  it  is  only  just  to 
say  that,  while  a  more  enlarged  experience  has  confirmed  the  general  correct- 
ness of  the  reasonings,  it  has  also  shown  me  that  parts  of  the  article  might  easily 
be  improved  by  reconstruction.  But  as  something  would  be  lost  by  violating  its 
historical  integrity,  I  have  concluded  to  give  it  again  to  the  public  without  impor- 
tant modifications. 


GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST,  THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF 
CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.* 


To  roll  a  snowball  and  to  grow  an  oak  are  not  the  same 
thing.  Enlargement  of  volume  is  a  result  in  both  cases ;  but  be- 
yond this,  they  have  nothing  in  common.  In  one,  the  result  is 
wrought  by  an  external  force ;  in  the  other,  by  a  vital  force 
within.  In  one,  the  swelling  bulk  receives  all  that  will  adhere 
to  it,  snow,  mud,  or  gravel,  as  it  may  happen,  forming  a  pro- 
miscuous conglomerate  mass ;  in  the  other,  the  new  matter  is 
carefully  selected,  taken  up  internally,  digested,  assimilated, 
and  built  into  an  organic,  vital  whole.  In  the  snowball,  there 
is,  at  no  time,  any  internal  power  of  production  or  self-enlarge- 
ment. Not  one  of  the  particles  in  its  cold  body  can  it  quicken 
or  fructify ;  whereas  in  the  tree  there  is  a  vital,  self-active 
power,  which  can  work,  feed,  and  send  out  the  extensions  of 
growth,  as  long  as  it  lives. 

The  same  distinction  holds  in  reference  to  every  organic  and 
vital  being ;  it  must  have  its  increase  by  a  law  peculiar  to  vital 
being,  that  is,  by  its  own  internal  activity  and  a  development  from 
within.  Nor  is  this  less  true  of  the  mind,  or  intellectual  life, 
than  of  animal  and  vegetable  natures.  There  is  no  true  en- 
largement of  the  mind,  no  increase  of  intellectual  stature,  save 
that  which  is  wrought  in  and  through  the  internal  activity  of 
the  mind  itself.  To  be  a  receiver  only  of  the  world's  knowl- 

*  From  the  New  Englander  of  1844,  Vol.  IL 


148  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

edge,  to  pile  up  the  treasures  of  libraries  in  the  memory,  to 
overlay  the  soul  with  borrowed  ornaments,  and  crowd  its  ca- 
pacity with  borrowed  opinions  and  arguments,  is  no  better 
than  to  swell  the  body  and  shape  it  into  proportion,  by  laying 
on  muscles  of  cloth  or  of  clay.  The  creative  and  mercurial 
energies  of  the  soul  itself  must  be  called  into  action,  the  man 
himself  must  grow.  He  must  learn  to  think,  to  wrestle  with 
difficulties;  his  inventive  and  critical  powers  must  sharpen 
their  action.  What  he  receives,  he  must  receive  as  by  diges- 
tion, and  build  it  into  the  body  of  his  intellectual  being,  by  a 
process  of  internal  assimilation.  Otherwise  his  soul  will  only 
lie  entombed  in  its  knowledge. 

So  also  with  piety  or  Christian  character.  It  must  be  a 
growth.  Its  increase  and  beauty  must  be  wrought  by  the  ac- 
tivity of  spiritual  life.  Fires  will  not  burn  it  into  the  soul. 
Statutes  and  penalties  will  not  force  it.  Self-tortures  and 
penances  will  as  little  avail.  Sacraments  and  formal  obser- 
vances will  not,  of  themselves,  accomplish  more.  Its  being  is 
its  life  as  a  spiritual  creature  of  God,  quickened  by  his  light  and 
warmed  by  his  love.  Its  volume  is  in  its  exercise,  its  aims  and 
objects,  its  internal  struggles  and  conquests;  by  which  it  grows 
tip  into  Him  in  whom  it  lives,  showing  first  the  blade,  then  the 
ear,  and  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear. 

Thus  far  we  have  spoken  only  of  those  vital  natures  which 
are  individual.  But  the  same  law  holds  in  respect  to  society, 
at  least  in  many  of  its  forms.  Society  is  vital  and  organic. 
The  family,  for  example,  is  a  living  creature,  an  organic  whole, 
having  a  power  of  unlimited  increase  in  its  own  vital  and  pro- 
lific nature.  A  single  family,  proceeding  thus  from  one  parent 
stock,  will  suffice  to  people  a  nation, — nay,  it  has  sufficed  to 
people  even  the  world  itself.  It  is  not  like  a  foundling  hospital, 
which  is  peopled  from  without,  by  in;i  ates  gathered  from  the 
streets,  and  by  no  laws  of  production  within  its  own  nature ; 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  J4Q 

but  it  is  one  regular  coherent  growth,  a  vital  organism,  unfold- 
ing itself  till  it  fills  a  nation  or  a  world. 

The  same  truth  holds  with  suitable  modifications,  in  the 
civil  state.  The  true  increase  of  a  nation  is  not  that  which  is 
made  by  conquest  and  plunder,  but  that  which  is  the  simple 
development  of  its  vital  and  prolific  resources.  Two  centuries 
ago,  there  came  over  to  these  western  shores  a  few  thousand 
men.  These  were  the  germ  of  a  great  nation  here  to  arise 
and  come  into  the  public  history  of  the  world,  possibly  as  a 
leading  member.  Potentially  speaking,  these  men  had  in  them- 
selves, that  is,  in  their  persons,  their  principles,  their  habits 
and  other  resources,  all  that  now  is  or  is  yet  to  be  of  power 
and  greatness  in  our  republic.  They  went  to  work  with  a  de- 
gree of  spirit  and  energy  never  before  exhibited.  Habits  of 
virtuous  and  frugal  industry  were  unfolded  by  a  wise  and  care- 
ful training.  Simplicity  of  manners,  for  the  first  time,  appeared, 
not  as  a  barbaric  virtue,  but  as  the  proper  fruit  of  simplicity  in 
religion.  The  mental  vigor,  produced  by  the  same  causes,  was 
yet  further  sharpened  by  the  necessities  of  a  new  state  of  exist- 
ence. Population  multiplied,  wealth  increased,  the  forest  fell 
away  at  the  sound  of  their  axes,  the  natives  retired  before  the 
potent  and  prolific  energy  of  Saxon  life,  as  before  the  Great 
Spirit  himself.  Cities  rose  upon  the  shores,  the  waters  whit- 
ened to  the  sun  under  the  sails  of  commerce,  the  civil  order 
unfolded  itself,  as  it  were  naturally,  from  the  germ  that  blos- 
somed in  the  May  Flower,  and,  behold,  a  great,  wealthy,  pow- 
erful and  free  nation  stalks  into  history  with  the  tread  of  a 
giant,  fastening  the  astonished  gaze  of  the  world, — all  in  the 
Avay  of  simple  growth !  We  have  made  no  conquests.  We 
have  only  unfolded  our  original  germ,  the  mustard  seed  of  our 
first  colonization.  There  is  no  other  kind  of  national  advance- 
ment which  is  legitimate  or  safe.  The  civil  order  must  grow 
as  a  creature  of  life,  and  unfold  itself  from  within.  If  a  nation 

will  suddenly  extend  its  boundaries  and  build  up  its  splendor  by 
13* 


150  GROWTH,  XOT  CONQUEST, 

conquest,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Roman  empire,  or  in  the  subju- 
gation of  Mexico  by  Spain,  how  different  is  the  spectacle.  The 
elements  of  the  civil  order,  being  piled  together  by  mere  accre- 
tion, are  without  coherency  or  unity.  The  public  life  does  not 
fill  the  public  mass,  and,  without  the  organic  power  of  life,  it  is 
ready  to  fall  to  pieces  at  the  earliest  moment.  Wealth  itself  is 
poverty ;  power  is  weakness ;  breadth  is  dissipation;  numbers, 
discontent  and  anarchy.  A  nation  built  by  growth  is  as  differ- 
ent from  a  nation  built  by  conquest,  as  the  tree  that  stands 
erect,  filled  with  vital  sap,  covered  with  joyful  verdure,  and, 
when  the  winter  comes,  tossing  its  bare  arms  victoriously  to 
the  storm,  from  a  pile  of  drift-wood  which  the  floods  have 
heaped  upon  the  shore  to  rot  and  perish.  Accordingly  the  very 
word  nation  implies  a  nascent  order  and  growth.  It  is  no  such 
pile  of  ruins  as  the  external  accidents  of  force  and  conquest 
may  construct ;  but  it  is  a  birth,  the  unfolding  of  a  vital  germ 
through  population,  industry,  art,  literature,  law  and  religion. 

These  illustrations  bring  us  to  the  church  of  God.  They 
are  offered  with  no  other  design  than  to  show  forth,  in  a  clear, 
intelligible  manner,  and,  as  far  as  their  analogy  will  go,  to 
substantiate  a  great  and  momentous  truth,  in  regard  to  the 
increase  of  the  church  and  the  spread  of  the  gospel,  of  which 
the  church  is  the  embodiment.  According  to  the  opinion  of 
Christ  himself,  the  church  is  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  and 
its  future  spread  is  to  be  as  the  growth  of  a  tree.  It  is  a  crea- 
ture whose  vitality  is  spiritual  life,  and  it  can  have  its  increase 
only  by  the  same  law  which  pertains  in  all  organic  living 
bodies,  that  is  by  development  from  within,  not  by  external  ac- 
cretion. It  must  be,  not  as  the  snowball,  not  as  the  foundling 
hospital,  not  as  the  empire  hewn  out  by  conquest,  but  as  the 
tree  rather,  the  family,  the  nation,  growing  by  its  own  internal 
life. 

There  is  no  truth,  which  the  church  has,  in  all  past  times, 
been  so  prone  to  overlook,  or  in  the  neglect  of  which  she  has 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  J51 

suffered  so  many  and  terrible  disasters.  In  fact,  almost  all  the 
desolations  which  have  befallen  the  purity  and  success  of  the 
church,  have  been  wrought  by  attempts  to  propagate  religion 
and  extend  the  reign  of  Christ,  by  forces  and  instruments  that 
were  really  external  to  the  church,  and  not  by  virtue  of  spirit- 
ual life  in  her  own  bosom.  And  if  other  desolations  are  here- 
after to  follow,  as  we  have  too  much  reason  to  fear,  these  also 
will  flow  from  the  same  fountain  of  mischief.  And  therefore  it 
becomes  the  church,  now  that  she  has  undertaken  in  earnest 
to  achieve  the  universal  reign  of  the  Redeemer,  to  inquire 
most  carefully  whether  she  is  expecting  to  succeed,  by  the  vital 
power  of  her  piety  and  by  unfolding  her  own  internal  growth, 
or  by  the  clumsy  expedients  of  mechanism  and  by  instruments 
that  are  carnal. 

That,  we  may  have  our  eyes  opened  to  the  fearful  dangers 
that  beset  the  church,  in  her  proneness  to  go  after  external 
means  and  instruments,  let  us  glance  a  moment  at  some  of  the 
mischiefs  she  has  suffered  from  this  source. 

First  of  all,  she  was  seduced  from  her  purity  by  an  expecta- 
tion of  the  splendid  results  to  be  secured  by  a  union  with  philo- 
sophy. Christianity,  the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  him  crucified, 
was  true  indeed,  a  good  and  heavenly  truth ;  but  it  was  too 
naked  and  bald,  too  destitute  of  learning  and  philosophy,  to 
command  the  respect  of  the  world.  And  what  might  not  be 
expected  from  a  union  of  the  Christian  doctrine  with  the  wis- 
dom of  the  schools !  Then  it  would  be  both  true  and  wise  to- 
gether— both  pious  and  profound  ;  and  the  whole  world  would 
be  obliged  to  accept  it  speedily!  "We  must  give  to  the 
Greeks,"  says  Clement,  "who  ask  for  that  wisdom  which  is 
in  esteem  among  them,  such  things  as  they  are  accustomed  to." 
Actuated  by  the  same  general  design,  the  church  was  moved 
to  interweave  her  doctrine  with  all  the  various  schemes  of  phi- 
losophy current  in  the  world.  She  went  out  unto  the  world, 
to  borrow  the  world's  wisdom,  that  so  she  might  gain  the  world. 


152  GROWTH,  NOT  COXdUEST, 

One  teacher  led  her  into  the  embrace  of  Gnosticism.  Another 
wove  her  a  dress  out  of  the  shreds  and  patches  of  the  Greek 
wisdom.  The  Alexandrian  teachers  toiled  with  incredible 
industry,  to  melt  her  doctrine  into  harmony  with  all  the 
wisdom  of  all  the  schools  of  the  world,  promising  thus  to 
evolve,  as  the  result,  a  scheme  of  universal  truth.  Nor  is  it  to 
be  denied  that  the  church  thus  drew  to  her  bosom  many  nomi- 
nal converts.  The  snowball  rolled  up  rapidly,  and  became  a 
tumid  mass,  amid  the  applauses  of  courts  and  schools ;  till,  at 
length,  it  was  found  that  Christianity  was  perishing  under  the 
very  means  that  were  extending  her  nominal  dominion.  Inter- 
pretation was  become  a  jingle  of  conceits,  truth  a  bundle  of 
metaphysical  vagaries,  and  the  church  naught  but  a  monstrous 
aggregation  of  scholastic  rubbish,  without  spiritual  life  or  unity 
— a  conglomerate  mass  of  dead  and  putrid  members. 

Next  the  church,  as  if  she  had  no  power  to  live  in  herself, 
courted  the  alliance  and  protection  of  the  civil  state.  Princes 
and  thrones  became  her  patrons,  parliaments  the  guardians  of 
her  orthodoxy,  tithes  and  excises  the  resources  of  her  existence, 
prisons  and  tortures  and  fires  and  chariots  of  war  the  instru- 
ments of  her  power.  Here  again,  she  spreads  her  empire,  and 
enrolls  nations  as  her  disciples.  Only  it  is  proved  in  the  end, 
that  she  herself  has  no  existence  save  her  name,  no  organic 
life  of  her  own,  no  power,  no  purity,  no  fructifying  element. 
The  hand  that  molds  her  is  not  her  own.  The  strength  that 
maintains  her  is  external.  If  indeed  she  has  become  a  great 
tree,  there  is  yet  no  internal  sap  in  her  trunk ;  her  branches  are 
stuck  on  by  civil  enactments,  her  leaves  made  to  adhere  by  the 
screws  of  torture,  her  flowers  the  garish,  artificial  ornaments 
of  state  formalities. 

In  connection  too  with  these  endeavors  to  find  a  power  out  of 
herself,  whereby  she  might  strengthen  her  dominion,  the 
church  has  also  courted  an  influence  which  is  mechanical.  We 
speak  now  of  her  endeavor  to  supply  spiritual  power  by  means 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  153 

of  a  grand  artificial  machinery  of  forms.  According  to  the 
true  idea  of  Christ  in  the  economy  of  the  gospel,  the  church  ia 
to  unfold  herself  outwards  from  the  principle  of  spiritual  life 
within.  Forms  reverse  the  order.  They  are  resorted  to  as  an 
extraneous  power,  which  is  to  react  on  the  religious  spirit  of 
the  world,  and  build  the  church  inward,  as  ii  were,  from  with- 
out. First  the  forms  are  established,  set  up  as  an  outward 
shell ;  then  the  world  is  to  be  taken  within  this  shell,  to  be 
wrought  upon  by  the  external  influence  by  which  it  is  invested. 
The  church  is  thus  to  be  built,  not  by  a  growth  outward,  but 
by  virtue  of  instruments  on  the  outside  which  are  purely  me- 
chanical— bows,  crosses,  pictures,  penances,  vows,  sacraments 
of  a  physical  power,  washings,  and  other  carnal  ordinances. 
Here  again,  as  before,  the  effort  is  to  make  the  church  power- 
ful, by  virtue  of  something  external  to  the  church — by  in- 
struments as  purely  mechanical  as  thumb-screws  or  prisons. 
The  church  in  fact  becomes  a  great  ecclesiastical  factory,  run- 
ning its  thousand  wheels  to  shape  and  polish  and  rub  and  grind 
the  people  into  Christian  disciples.  The  work  is  to  begin  on 
the  outside,  and  it  is  expected  to  operate  inward,  and  form,  in 
this  manner,  a  spiritual  church  of  God.  The  result  we  know, — 
darkness  instead  of  light,  credulity  instead  of  faith,  penance  in- 
stead of  repentance,  superstition  instead  of  piety,  pride  and 
bigotry  instead  of  benevolence  to  man,  the  keeping  of  saints' 
days  instead  of  the  spirit  of  saints,  triumphal  pomps  instead  of 
spiritual  liberty. 

We  see  in  this  brief  glance,  how  it  is  that  the  church  has 
been  trying  in  all  ages  to  increase,  not  by  internal  growth,  but 
by  conquest  and  external  accretion.  She  has  gone  after  phi- 
losophy, after  the  civil  and  military  power,  after  mechanical 
forms  and  instruments,  alter  any  thing  and  every  thing  exter- 
nal, by  which  she  could  hope  to  advance  her  dominion. 

Nor  is  the  reason  difficult  of  discovery.  How  could  she  grow 
by  the  simple  development  of  spiritual  life,  when  spiritual  life 


]54  GROWTH.  NOT  COXaUEST, 

was  extinct  or  nearly  extinct  in  her  bosom  ?  How  could  the 
sap  of  the  vine  feed  and  extend  the  branches,  when  they  them- 
selves were  not  connected  with  the  trunk  ?  Man  is  naturally 
disinclined  to  faith,  and  therefore  the  church,  as  the  life  of  God 
abates  and  the  carnal  spirit  enters,  is  ever  flying  to  the  senses 
to  seize  upon  external  aids  and  instruments,  and  commence 
building  on  the  outside.  Nor  is  it  any  matter  how  spiritual  are 
the  doctrines  and  religious  tests  held  by  the  church ;  we  need 
only  be  sure  that  her  piety  wanes,  to  be  also  sure  that,  if  she 
does  any  thing  for  the  cause  of  her  Master,  she  will  do  it  in 
some  work  of  mere  outside  industry.  For  she  cannot  exert 
more  of  spiritual  life  than  she  has.  The  error  may  change  its 
forms,  but  its  mischievous  presence  must  continue  as  long  as 
the  spiritual  deficiency  which  creates  it.  Nay,  she  is  the  more 
exposed  to  this  error,  in  proportion  as  she  is  more  active  for 
the  truth  without  the  spirit  of  action.  Hence  the  necessity  of 
a  thorough  intellectual  conviction  of  the  great  truth  we  are 
now  asserting — a  necessity  which  is  rather  increased  than  dimin- 
ished, whenever  she  is  engaged,  as  now,  in  great  enterprises 
to  extend  her  dominion. 

But  it  may  be  suspected  that  our  doctrine  is  one  which  really 
cuts  off  all  such  enterprises,  that  if  the  church  is  to  have  her 
increase  only  by  a  vital  growth  or  development,  there  is  no 
longer  any  room  for  the  employment  of  aggressive  agencies. 
We  must  therefore  go  into  some  illustrations,  to  show  the  true 
meaning  and  exhibit  the  spirit  of  our  doctrine. 

Do  we  then  maintain  that  the  church  is  simply  to  stay  within 
herself  and  grow?  Is  she  never  to  go  forth  to  them  that  are 
without,  to  make  no  converts,  traverse  no  seas,  go  not  near  the 
temples  of  the  idols  ?  Is  she  to  light  her  lamp,  retire  within 
her  bushel,  and  stay  there  till  the  bushel  itself  takes  fire  from 
the  intensity  of  the  inward  heat,  and  the  parts  adjacent  are 
illuminated  by  a  spontaneous  combustion  that  can  not  suppress 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN   PROGRESS.  155 

itself?    We  need  not  be  reminded  that  this  was  not  the  man- 
ner of  the  Apostles.  As  little  need  we  be  informed  that  it  is  the 
genius  of  Christianity  itself  to  go  about  doing  good.    Nay,  it  is 
the  genius  of  the  trees  also,  that  they  go  after  foreign  matter  in 
the  earth  and  air,  by  the  reduction  and  assimilation  of  which, 
they  fill  out  their  volume  and  put  forth  their  extensions.    So  far 
even  vegetable  growth  is  aggressive.    When  therefore,  we 
maintain  that  the  church  has  no  legitimate  increase,  except  by 
a  vital  growth  from  within,  we  do  not  say  that  she  is  to  be  in- 
active, or  that  she  is  never  to  act  aggressively.    We  only  say 
that  all  activity  or  aggression  which  exceeds  the  measure  of 
spiritual  life  is  fictitious  and  dangerous ;  that  whatever  attempt 
she  puts  forth  without  life  or  beyond  the  compass  of  her  own 
piety,  is  really  not  put  forth  by  the  church  at  all.    She  is  not  to 
deceive  herself  by  such  efforts.    They  are  forced  and  spasmod- 
ical, like  the  galvanic  grasp  of  a  hand  that  is  cut  off  from  the 
body.    But  spiritual  life  is  not  restrained  within  local  bounda- 
ries.   Its  only  limit  is  its  degree.    It  quickens  activities  that 
reach  beyond  the  ocean,  or  across  empires  and  continents,  as 
easily  and  as  naturally  as  those  that  range  within  parish  limits, 
or  within  the  disciple's  own  bosom.     Whatsoever   man  or 
church  is  alive  unto  God,  is  alive  unto  all  that  God  has  made. 
In  fact,  nothing  is  necessary,  nothing  is  now  so  much  wanted,  to 
increase  and  energize  the  activity  of  the  church  in  her  aggres- 
sive plans,  as  more  of  spiritual  life.    Hear,   O  ye  people  of 
God! — this  is  the  language  of  our  doctrine — think  not  that  ye 
can  do  in  the  flesh  what  belongs  to  the  spirit.    The  kingdom  of 
Christ  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
how  then  will  ye  roll  it  onward  with  your  hands !    Q,uit  all 
formal  charities  and  efforts  that  outreach  your  love.    As  your 
first  offering  bring  your  heart  to  your  Redeemer.    If  your  work 
is  holy,  let  your  spirit  be  gracious.    If  it  be  a  work  of  love,  let 
love  animate  the  work.    Be  no  more  alienated  from  the  life  of 
God !    The  life  is  more  than  meat,  and  the  body  than  raiment. 


156  GROWTH,     NOT  CONdUEST, 

Under  the  pretext  that  the  church  has  no  legitimate  increase 
except  by  a  law  of  growth,  some  have  maintained,  we  believe, 
that  our  missionary  expeditions  are  inconsistent  with  the  true 
economy  of  the  gospel.  The  church,  they  say,  must  grow  so 
as  to  roll  over  her  boundaries,  and  thus  have  her  extension 
only  as  she  acts,  by  her  virtues  and  her  spirit,  on  the  neighbor- 
hood adjacent.  But  we  must  not  imagine  that  the  church  has 
any  boundaries.  God  has  given  her  the  world.  Ail  that  Christ 
her  divine  Head  reigns  over  and  claims  for  his  own  domain,  is 
hers  also.  She  never  goes  abroad,  except  as  locomotion  is  pre- 
dicated of  her  members.  Locally  speaking,  there  is  no  exter- 
nal region  into  which  she  may  sally  after  conquests.  The 
world  is  all  her  own.  She  is  every  where  at  home  in  it,  as  a 
nation  within  its  boundaries,  and  her  only  problem  is  to  unfold 
her  resources  on  her  own  proper  soil,  and,  by  the  activity  of 
her  heavenly  lile,  assimilate  all  that  live  to  the  person  of  her 
Redeemer.  She  is  not  a  crusader  because  she  endeavors  to  fill 
her  own  domain.  The  very  endeavor,  if  actuated  by  spiritual 
life,  is  in  the  nature  of  growth. 

At  the  same  time,  it  must  not  be  withheld,  that  the  great  law 
of  Christian  advancement  we  are  asserting,  is  of  a  nature  to 
suggest  some  uncomfortable,  though  we  trust,  salutary  suspi- 
cions, in  regard  to  our  present  movements  for  evangelizing  the 
world.  The  church  can  not  be  too  fully  aware  that  this  new 
era  of  missions  portends  some  serious  result.  If  it  is  begun 
and  actuated  by  a  true  apostolic  piety,  it  will  triumph.  This 
we  verily  believe,  though  in  spite  of  many  discouraging  symp- 
toms that  fill  us  with  uneasiness  and  profound  anxiety.  If  it  be 
otherwise,  if  the  work  is  begun  by  a  mere  sally  of  impulse  and 
prosecuted  only  as  a  dull  mechanical  labor,  apart  from  any  real 
union  to  God,  and  without  any  sober  apprehension  of  its  agree- 
ment with  his  heavenly  designs,  not  only  will  it  fall  to  nothing, 
but  the  churches  engaged  Will  either  be  prostrated  or  effectu- 
ally revolutionized.  The  old  vegetable,  or  rather  mineral  habit 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  157 

of  the  church,  which  preceded  these  efforts,  is  already  broken 
up.  Piety  has  now  become  more  nearly,  perhaps  too  nearly, 
synonymous  with  action.  In  our  endeavor  to  persuade  our- 
selves that  we  exist  only  for  the  accomplishment  of  benevolent 
works,  we  have  at  least  learned  to  shape  all  our  views  of  God 
and  divine  government  by  this  principle.  Theological  changes, 
extensively  imputed  to  other  causes,  have  been  really  due,  in 
the  remoter  sense,  to  a  change  in  the  practical  habit  of  Chris- 
tian life.  If  now  our  missionary  enterprises  fall  to  nothing, 
where  will  they  leave  us  ?  We  have  swung  our  anchor,  and 
the  quiet  narrow  bay  that  lies  sheltered  between  original  sin 
and  divine  efficiency,  headed  by  Mount  Predestination,  is  already 
so  far  behind  us  that  only  the  top  of  the  said  mountain  is  visible. 
We  can  lie  there  on  deck  basking  in  the  sun  no  more — that  day 
is  over.  Our  practical  and  theological  habits  are  already 
changed,  and  if  changed  by  efforts  that  must  fail  because  there 
is  too  little  of  spiritual  life  in  them  to  suffer  their  success,  what 
shall  be  the  result?  Some  new  era  of  darkness,  doubtless, 
analogous  to  that  which  an  alliance  of  the  church  with  philoso- 
phy and  the  civil  state  and  mechanical  forms  produced — a  dark 
age  of  Protestantism.  And  what  more  appropriate  or  likely, 
than  that  our  speculations  concerning  God's  benevolence,  sepa- 
rated, by  a  failure  of  our  plans,  from  all  vital  benevolence  in 
ourselves,  should  bring  us  to  our  theologic  and  moral  level,  in 
that  sea  of  water-gruel  philanthropy,  sometimes  called  Univer- 
salism. 

Furthermore,  is  it  not  an  appalling  fact,  that  while  the  church 
of  God  has  been  launching  forth  into  undertakings  so  vast  and 
holy,  it  has,  at  the  same  time,  manifested  so  little  corresponding 
growth  in  spirituality  and  faith  in  the  Redeemer.  How  many 
of  those  who  contribute  to  missions,  and  perhaps  even  bounti- 
fully, do  it  only  as  paying  a  church  rental  to  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  without  any  earnest  prayerful  desire  for  the  Redeem" 
er's  triumph.  How  few  practically  live  for  this  object?  In 
14 


158  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

how  few  minds  is  the  power  of  the  world  practically  relaxed  ? 
In  how  many  Christian  bosoms  has  this  work  of  missions  lost 
all  impulse,  save  that  of  mere  engagement  itself,  and  degener- 
ated into  flat  formality  1  We  have  great  societies  on  foot  to 
prosecute  and  direct  these  undertakings.  They  were  founded, 
we  believe,  in  a  spirit  of  faith.  The  new  desire  to  propagate 
the  gospel,  in  which  they  sprung,  we  believe  was  kindled  from 
above.  The  blessing  of  God  has  visibly  rested  on  their  plans. 
But  how  manifest  is  it  that  these  societies  become  mere  dead 
machines  outside  of  the  church,  unless  they  are  filled  and  pene- 
trated, through  and  through,  by  the  life  of  the  Christian  body. 
A  mere  society  engine  fed  by  money,  is  as  truly  external  to  the 
church,  as  the  Parliament  of  England  or  the  Germanic  Diet ; 
and  it  is  an  instrument  as  irrelevant  to  the  extension  of  the 
church,  as  any  of  the  human  expedients  by  which  it  has  hith- 
erto been  corrupted.  How  often  too,  and  how  earnestly,  do 
the  conductors  of  these  societies  testify  the  anxiety  they  feel, 
lest  the  inconstancy  experienced  in  the  flow  of  their  resources, 
may  indicate  the  fact  that  they  flow  from  no  settled  principle  of 
love  to  the  cause  engaged  in.  Nor  is  it  an  auspicious  sign,  if 
the  church,  as  we  often  hear,  has  reached  her  highest  point  or 
maximum,  in  the  scale  of  her  contributions.  This  apparent  fact 
may  be  due  to  commercial  causes.  If  not,  the  sign  is  a  bad  one. 
It  indicates  a  want  of  spiritual  life;  for  life  will  never  suffer  a 
stand.  Its  very  instinct  is  growth  and  extension.  To  be  sta- 
tionary is  to  die. 

Is  there  not  also  much  of  very  idle  declamation  on  the  subject 
of  the  press  ?  As  if  God  would  offer  to  man  a  mechanical  en- 
gine for  converting  the  world  with  the  least  possible  expendit- 
ure of  piety ;  or  as  if  types  of  lead  and  sheets  of  paper  may  be 
the  light  of  the  world.  The  press  is  a  new  tongue  given  to  the 
church.  But  if  she  talks  more,  she  must  for  that  reason  live 
more ;  for  talk,  without  the  life  to  give  it  power  and  unction, 
degenerates  into  empty  noise  and  clatter.  The  press,  there- 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  159 

fore,  in  order  not  to  be  another  external  instrument,  as  mis- 
chievous as  state  patronage  or  the  mechanical  forms  of  prela- 
cy, must  be  attended  in  the  church  by  extraordinary  gifts  of 
holiness  and  self-denial,  and  worke.d,  if  we  may  so  express  it, 
by  spiritual  life.  To  hang  any,  the  least  expectation  on  the 
press,  as  a  substitute  for  piety,  or  a  piety-saving  machine,  is  an 
egregious  delusion. 

We  offer  these  suggestions,  not  to  create  discouragement, 
but  to  show  the  scope  and  spirit  of  our  doctrine.  It  is  much  that 
we  find  nothing  wrong  in  our  objects,  or  in  the  means  devised 
for  their  attainment.  They  only  cease  to  come  within  the  prin- 
ciple of  growth  by  a  deficiency  of  vital  piety  and  faith  in  God, — 
a  deficiency  that  unmakes  or  vitiates  every  thing,  even  the  sac- 
rifices of  God's  altar.  And  is  it  not  time  for  the  church  to  re- 
ceive this  lesson,  to  assure  herself  in  every  member,  that  if  she 
extends  her  domain,  she  must  grow,  and  that  if  she  grows  she 
must  live  1  Is  it  not  time  for  the  ministers  of  religion  to  preach 
despair  and  a  curse  to  all  dead  charities, — to  tell  their  flocks 
that  this  gift  of  power  cannot  be  bought  with  money,  that  the 
church  is  in  jeopardy  through  her  very  efforts,  and  that  all  at- 
tempts to  push  her  forward  without  piety  or  beyond  it,  must 
end  in  disaster  1 

Some  persons  may  be  apprehensive  that  the  spirit  of  our  doc- 
trine of  internal  growth,  is  adverse  to  all  suitable  efforts  to  se- 
cure the  conversion  of  those  who  are  without.  Rather  is  it  the 
only  sound  law  of  such  efforts.  If  they  may  not  be  actuated 
by  a  vital  Christian  love,  or  if  they  expect  to  prevail  by  other 
influences  than  those  of  Christian  truth,  they  ought  to  be  with' 
held.  No  one  can  doubt  that  instruments  of  bribery  or  torture, 
to  gain  men  to  Christ,  are  external  to  the  church,  and  essen- 
tially spurious.  There  are  other  instruments  that  are  not  more 
to  be  commended.  If  a  great  scene  must  be  compassed  ;  if  a 
preacher  who  is  noted  as  having  a  wondrous  faculty  to  convert 
men  must  be  sent  for  as  indispensable ;  if  a  mill  of  mechanism 


160  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

must  be  planned,  it  would  not  seem  that  the  church,  as  a  living 
embodiment  of  God's  truth  and  Spirit,  has  much  to  do  with  the 
contrivance  in  any  way.  So  of  all  efforts  to  bring  men  to 
Christ  by  means  and  instruments  not  included  in  Christian  truth 
and  the  persuasive  power  of  holy  living.  So  again  if  the  whole 
attention  of  the  church  is  bent  to  this  one  object  of  making  con- 
versions, and  there  is  no  endeavor  to  cherish  them  after  they 
are  made ;  if  nothing  is  valued  but  conversions,  and  these  are 
taken  as  the  measure  of  all  good ;  if  revivals  of  religion  are 
sought,  not  for  the  reviving  of  piety,  but  simply  and  only  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  unbelievers ;  then  is  it  clear,  that  the 
idea  of  growth  is  lost  in  the  idea  of  conquest.  It  is  not  spiritual 
life  that  prompts  such  efforts ;  for,  if  it  had  its  presence  in  them, 
it  would  also  move  the  Christian  body  in  its  own  inward  expe- 
riences and  struggles,  and  make  it  something  to  have  graces 
and  attainments  of  its  own.  Rather  must  we  judge,  in  such 
cases,  that  the  church  wants  some  easier  work  than  to  grow 
herself  unto  God,  and  prefers  rather  to  see  a  prodigious  slaugh- 
ter among  them  that  are  called  sinners.  Furthermore,  in  these 
scenes  of  mere  conquest,  there  are  commonly  found  too  many 
signs  of  a  ferocious  and  fanatical  spirit,  to  suffer  the  conviction 
that  spiritual  life,  with  its  holy  calm,  its  peaceful  elevation,  its 
genial  affections,  actuates  the  movement.  We  seem  to  look, 
not  upon  the  burning  bush  where  Jehovah  dwells,  but  on  a 
mere  human  conflagration,  roasting  and  consuming  all  whom 
it  reaches.  Contrary  to  all  this,  when  simple  love  to  God  is 
breathed  out  in  love  to  men,  and  efforts  to  convert  those  with- 
out receive  a  strenuous  and  persuasive  character  from  the 
fervor  of  this  Christian  love,  the  object  here  is  not  conquest, 
but  assimilation,  which  is  itself  a  function  of  growth.  Or,  if  we 
call  it  conquest,  it  is  such  only  in  that  milder  and  more  figura- 
tive sense,  which  consists  with  a  true  Christian  zeal.  This  is 
that  conflagration  which  reveals  the  true  presence  of  God, 
which  burns  and  consumes  not ! 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  '161 

Our  doctrine  of  growth  excludes  all  efforts  to  reform  the 
world  by  the  mere  force  of  public  opinion.  How  many  Chris- 
tian reformers,  for  the  want,  shall  we  say,  of  a  living  piety  and 
a  confidence  in  truth,  fly  to  the  help  of  public  opinion,  as  a 
shorter  method,  and  one  that  lies  within  their  range.  Public 
opinion  is  their  argument ;  to  array  public  opinion  against  the 
practices  they  combat,  their  chief  hope,  and  the  ma,in  effort  of 
their  industry.  I  do  not  doubt  the  use  of  public  opinion,  in  its 
place,  or  the  validity  of  its  power.  But  if  it  were  possible  to 
make  public  opinion  the  law  and  sanction  of  virtue,  how  does  it 
appear  that  an  alliance  of  church  and  state  is  any  more  adverse 
to  the  purity  of  the  Gospel,  than  an  alliance  of  the  church  with 
public  opinion,  or  a  submission  of  the  church  and  of  God's  laws 
to  its  patronage  ?  And  why  may  not  the  moral  duties  of  life 
as  well  be  enforced  by  the  sword,  as  by  public  opinion  ?  No 
instrument  of  moral  reform,  surely,  can  be  more  essentially  ex- 
ternal to  the  church,  or  foreign  to  its  spirit ,  than  the  public  opin- 
ion of  the  world.  In  the  same  view,  all  reliance  on  the  prog- 
ress of  society,  as  being  in  itself  g.  ground  of  hope  to  the  cause 
of  Christ,  is  vicious  and  deceptive,  except  as  God  is  supposed  to 
be  Himself  the  directing  law  of  society. 

By  these  illustrations,  the  spirit  of  our  principle  is  sufficiently 
displayed.  It  forbids  all  substitutes  for  piety,  and  all  hope  of 
success  without  or  apart  from  piety.  It  requires  every  activity 
to  proceed  from  within.  It  commands  the  church  first  of  all  to 
live, — demands  of  every  Christian,  who  will  add  strength  to  the 
cause  of  Christ  in  the  world,  that  he  contribute  first  of  all  a 
holy  life.  It  declares  that  bustle  can  not  save  the  world,  re- 
presses all  flippant  zeal  and  forwardness,  distinguishes  the 
money  giver  from  the  Christian,  and  warns  the  church  that  she 
is  about  to  perish  by  the  magnitude  of  her  schemes,  if  she  can 
not  sustain  them  by  a  proportional  measure  of  holiness  and 

faith  in  God. 

14* 


162  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

But  we  need  to  see  the  power  and  the  animating  grandeur 
of  our  principle,  as  well  as  its  spirit  and  its  lines  of  application. 
When  we  say  that  the  church  is  to  have  her  extension  by  a  law 
of  growth,  it  is  supposed  that  she  has  within  herself  certain 
prolific  resources  waiting  for  their  development.  It  is  with  her 
as  with  a  nation.  As  then  we  might  show  a  foreigner  the  re- 
sources of  future  grandeur  possessed  by  our  republic,  in  our  cli- 
mate, our  soil,  our  mines  and  forests,  our  rivers  and  ports,  our 
constitutions  and  laws,  our  schools,  the  spirit  of  our  people,  the 
health  and  vigor  of  our  stock  ;  so,  in  like  manner,  we  may  lay 
open  the  resources  of  the  church — the  heavenly  nation — and 
show  its  capacity  to  fill  and  sway  the  world. 

To  begin  with  those  least  spiritual,  there  is,  in  the  church, 
Ave  affirm,  a  much  greater  capacity  to  generate  wealth,  than 
there  is  in  the  world  external  to  the  church.  True  piety  is 
itself  a  principle  of  industry  and  application  to  business.  It  sub- 
ordinates, according  to  its  measure,  the  love  of  show  and  all 
the  tendencies  to  extravagance.  It  rules  out  those  licentious 
passions  that  war  with  order  and  economy,  and  hurry  so  many 
thousands  into  profligacy.  It  excludes  those  vices  which  prey 
upon  the  health  and  substance  of  their  victims.  It  moderates 
that  exceeding  haste  to  be  rich,  by  which  so  many  overreach 
themselves,  and  even  make  shipwreck  of  their  character.  Piety 
is  itself  a  basis  of  credit,  and  credit  is  capital.  Transplant  a 
Christian  church  into  the  wilderness,  without  money  or  resour  - 
ces,  other  than  what  they  have  in  their  own  persons,  and  it 
will  not  be  long  before  you  shall  see  them  in  a  condition  of  com- 
fort, and  displaying  all  the  ordinary  tokens  of  substantial  opu- 
lence. A  band  of  adventurers,  thrown  together  in  the  same 
place,  would  soon  be  involved  in  scenes  of  violence  and  disor- 
der, and,  having  no  industry  or  laws  to  secure  the  rights  and 
gains  of  industry,  would  probably  perish.  Nor  is  this  a  mere 
theoretical  opinion,  or  one  that  we  draw  from  our  fancy.  The 
history  of  our  own  New  England  yields  the  same  lesson- 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  ]63 

Whence  comes  it,  that  upon  her  rocky  and  stubborn  soil  under 
harsh  and  frowning  skies,  we  behold  so  much  of  high  prosper- 
ity and  substantial  wealth — so  much  of  physical  well-being  and 
ornament?  The  (act  is  attributed,  by  some,  to  our  sharpness 
and  parsimony.  But  the  real  sharpness  of  which  we  hear  is  in 
the  church  of  God,  which  has  cast  the  habits  of  our  people, 
made  them  patient  in  their  industry,  given  them  character  and 
credit,  cut  off  profligacy  and  profusion,  sent  up  its  warmth  into 
the  frigid  skies,  and  won  from  Him  who  is  throned  above  them, 
smiles  of  plenty,  more  genial  than  our  niggardly  climate  seem- 
ed to  offer.  And,  as  to  the  parsimony,  it  is  enough  to  ask,  in 
what  part  of  the  world  only  equal  in  ability,  so  much  is  given, 
with  so  free  a  spirit,  to  every  rational  object  of  public  benefi- 
cence and  Christian  charity  ?  There  are  then  mines  in  the 
church  of  God,  that  can  never  fail.  A  law  of  production  is  dis- 
covered, under  her  divine  economy,  which  pertains  no  where 
else ;  and  it  is  clearly  seen  that  she  can  never  want  resources 
for  any  undertaking  it  is  in  her  heart  to  attempt.  The  wealth 
of  the  world  runs  towards  her,  by  a  fixed  ordinance  of  heaven, 
Wealth  too  is  power.  So  that  she  is  set  on  high,  by  her  piety, 
to  work  her  beneficent  will,  and  extend  her  holy  principles,  by 
means  of  that  which  her  principles  have  created,  till  she  has 
both  enriched  and  regenerated  the  world. 

The  same  general  principles  and  habits  that  secure  a  more 
rapid  development  of  wealth,  make  it  also  sure,  that  more  of 
personal  talent  will  be  unfolded  in  the  church  than  out  of  it. 
Furthermore,  Christian  piety  is  the  friend  of  mental  liberty  and 
of  education.  The  very  principles  of  religion,  too,  require 
every  man  to  educate  himself  as  long  as  he  lives,— to  make  his 
ten  talents  twenty,  his  five  ten.  He  can  not  discharge  himself 
to  Christ,  except  as  he  multiplies  his  abilities.  It  will  also  be 
found,  that  Christian  families  abound  with  influences  specially 
favorable  to  the  awakening  of  the  intellectual  principle  in  child- 
hood. Religion  itself  is  thoughtful.  It  carries  the  child's  mind 


164  GROWTH,  NOT  COXGin.ST. 

over  directly  to  unknown  worlds,  fills  the  understanding  with 
the  sublirnest  questions,  and  sends  the  imagination  abroad  to 
occupy  itself  where  angel's  wings  would  tire.  The  child  of  a 
Christian  family  is  thus  unsensed,  at  the  earliest  moment,  and 
put  into  mental  action:  this,  too,  under  the  healthy  and  genial 
influence  of  Christian  principle.  Nor  should  we  omit  to  notice 
how  the  soul  of  every  disciple  is,  of  necessity,  exalted  and  em- 
powered by  union  to  God.  Hei  e  he  begins  to  partake  the  ele- 
vation of  an  angelic  nature.  All  that  is  neglectful,  low,  pas- 
sionate and  brutish,  in  his  make,  is  refined  away.  His  judg- 
ment is  clarified,  his  reason  put  in  harmony  with  truth,  his 
emotions  purified  and  increased  in  volume,  his  imagination  fired 
by  the  objects  of  faith  and  hope.  There  is,  in  short,  more  of 
talent  in  a  man,  more  capacity  to  think  high  thoughts  and  burn 
with  great  emotions,  simply  for  being  brought  unto  God.  Nor 
would  it  be  difficult  to  show,  by  a  comparison  of  Christendom 
with  the  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  more  spiritual  parts 
of  Christendom  with  those  that  are  less,  that  the  church,  as  a 
fact,  has  unfolded  more  of  talent  than  the  world  external  to  it, 
and  more  in  proportion  to  its  spirituality.  The  church  is  God's 
university,  and  it  lies  in  her  foundation  as  a  school  of  spiritual 
life,  to  energize  all  capacity  and  make  her  sons  a  talented  and 
powerful  race.  And  talent  is  the  greatest  of  all  merely  human 
gifts.  A  great  man  has  more  of  power  over  the  world  than  a 
great  army.  He  can  march  through  obstacles,  that  no  army 
can  force.  If  then  we  find  that  the  church  of  God  has  it  in  her 
nature  to  unfold  double  the  talent  unfolded  without, — to  pro- 
duce, out  of  a  given  number  of  persons,  a  twofold  proportion 
of  able  and  great  men,  it  requires  no  special  power  in  arithme- 
tic to  make  it  clear,  that  she  has  such  an  advantage  over  the 
world,  as  to  make  her  ultimate  triumph  certain. 

We  find  a  third  resource  of  the  church  in  the  fact  that  she 
has,  within  herself,  as  a  spiritual  nation,  a  peculiar  and  distinct 
law  of  spiritual  population.  We  verily  believe  that  it  is  the 
plan  of  God,  in  the  household  covenant,  to  bring  the  law  of  lam- 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  165 

ily  increase  directly  into  the  church,  and  make  it  also  a  law  of 
spiritual  increase.  Though  we  are  painfully  aware,  that  the 
views  of  this  covenant  and  of  Christian  education,  current  in 
the  church,  have  no  practical  agreement  with  our  own.  Indeed, 
if  we  advance  our  subject  by  this  head,  we  not  only  need  to 
cite  but  to  make  the  material  of  our  argument,  by  first  revolu- 
tionizing that  unbelief  or  misbelief,  through  which,  as  it  seems 
to  us,  the  opinions  of  the  church,  in  reference  to  Christian 
childhood,  are  so  injuriously  preoccupied.  This  we  can  not  do, 
by  any  discussion  within  our  present  compass.  And,  therefore, 
we  will  only  state  or  suggest  our  views  of  the  subject,  leaving 
it  to  our  readers  to  weigh  our  suggestions  by  themselves. 

We  reject  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration,  as  held  by 
Episcopalians ;  first,  because  it  makes  nothing  of  faith  in  the 
parents,  thrusting  them  away  by  the  interposition  of  sponsors, 
and  assuming  that  the  priest  may  take  any  child  and  translate 
him  at  once  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  his  own  act ;  sec- 
ondly, because  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  child  is  or  can  be 
spiritually  regenerated,  in  the  moment  of  baptism,  and  by  vir- 
tue of  that  ordinance.  In  place  of  a  doctrine  so  false  and  perni- 
cious, we  hold  that  children  are,  in  a  sense,  included  in  the  faith 
of  their  parents,  partakers  with  them  in  their  covenant,  and 
brought  into  a  peculiar  relation  to  God,  in  virtue  of  it.  On  this 
ground,  they  receive  a  common  seal  of  faith  with  them,  in  their 
baptism ;  and  God,  on  his  part,  contemplates,  in  the  rite,  the 
fact  that  they  are  to  grow  up  as  Christians,  or  spiritually  re- 
newed persons.  As  to  the  precise  time  or  manner  in  which 
they  are  to  receive  the  germ  of  holy  principle,  nothing  is  affirm- 
ed. Only  it  is  understood,  that  God  includes  their  infant  age  in 
the  womb  of  parental  culture,  and  pledges  himself  to  them  and 
their  parents,  in  such  a  way,  as  to  offer  the  presumption,  that 
they  may  grow  up  in  love  with  all  goodness,  and  remember  no 
definite  time  when  they  became  subjects  of  Christian  principle. 
Christian  education  is,  then,  to  conform  to  this  view,  and  noth- 
ing is  to  be  called  Christian  education  which  does  not.  As 


166  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

Baxter,  who  was  long  perplexed  with  suspicions,  that  his  piety 
was  only  his  education,  because  he  could  remember  no  time 
when  he  began  to  be  exercised  with  right  feeling,  removed  his 
difficulty  by  the  happy  discovery,  "  that  education  is  an  ordi- 
nary way  for  the  conveyance  of  God's  grace,  and  ought  no 
more  to  be  set  in  opposition  to  the  Spirit,  than  the  preaching  of 
the  word." 

We  think  it  is  no  objection  to  this  view,  that  the  children  of 
Christian  families  so  often  grow  up  in  sin,  and  die  in  manifest 
impenitence.  For  it  is  nothing  new  that  Christians  fail  of  their 
duty  and  cast  away  their  privilege.  At  the  same  time,  we  may 
safely  enough  indulge  the  suspicion,  that  a  large  share  of  those 
who  seem  co  be  renewed  at  a  later  period  of  life,  only  experi- 
ence a  resuscitation  of  that  holy  principle,  which  was  planted 
in  their  childhood ;  for  if  a  child  only  receives  the  law  of  the 
house  as  good  and  right,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  it  does 
not  involve  the  germ  of  a  right  character.  The  Moravians, 
too, have  very  nearly  realized  our  doctrine.  As  many  as  nine  out 
of  ten  in  that  most  interesting  church,  we  are  assured,  have 
no  conception  of  a  time  when  they  entered  on  a  Christian 
life.  Besides,  the  practical  disbelief  of  our  doctrine  is  itself  a 
good  and  sufficient  reason  why  our  Christian  families  do  not 
realize  its  results.  It  vitiates  the  whole  spirit  and  aim  of  their 
education.  It  leads  them  even  to  discourage  every  ingenuous 
effort  of  holy  virtue  in  childhood.  They  take  their  own  chil- 
dren to  be  aliens,  even  under  the  covenant, — train  them  up 
to  be  aliens,  and  even  tell  them  that  they  can  do  nothing  right 
or  acceptable  to  God  till  after  their  hearts  are  changed ;  or, 
what  is  the  same,  till  after  they  have  come  to  some  advanced 
age.  They  are  thus  discouraged,  and  even  taught  to  grow  up 
in  sin ;  which  if  they  fail  to  do,  it  is  because  a  bad  education  is 
not  able  to  accomplish  its  legitimate  results. 

Nor  is  our  view  any  infringement  upon  the  doctrine  of  de- 
pravity, in  whatsoever  manner  it  may  be  held.     It  only  de- 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  157 

clares  that  depravity  is  best  rectified  when  it  is  weakest,  and 
before  it  is  stiffened  into  habit. 

Neither  does  it  infringe  at  all  upon  the  doctrine,  that  spirit- 
ual agency  is  the  operative  cause  of  Christian  piety.  Whatso- 
ever the  parent  does  for  his  child,  is  to  have  its  effect  by  a  di- 
vine influence.  And  it  is  the  pledge  of  this,  which  lies  at  the 
basis  of  the  household  covenant,  and  constitutes  its  power. 

As  little  does  it  falsity  the  oft  repeated  text,  which  declares 
that  all  are  not  Israel  who  are  of  Israel.  This  declares  a  fact, 
and  the  fact  is,  alas !  too  true.  Or,  if  it  be  supposed  to  speak 
of  an  electing  purpose  of  God,  God  has  no  such  purpose,  irre- 
spective of  means  and  conditions;  and  the  question  is  still  open, 
whether  parental  misbelief  and  a  failure  of  duty  are  not  the 
reasons  why  the  offspring  of  Israel  are  aliens. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  express  direction  of  God,  that 
children  should  be  trained  up  in  the  way  that  they  should  go, — 
not  that  they  should  be  trained  up  in  the  wrong  way,  which 
afterwards  they  are  to  repent  of  and  forsake.  Bring  them  up 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  not  in  evil  and 
graceless  impenitence.  Faith  too  is  to  be  an  heir-loom  in  the 
family,  and  descend  upon  the  child;  the  faith  that  dwelt  first  in 
his  grandmother  Lois;  and  in  his  mother  Eunice,  is  last  of  all 
to  be  in  him  also. 

This  view,  too,  is  the  only  one  that  gives  household  baptism 
any  meaning,  or  any  real  place  in  the  Christian  system.  We 
admit,  in  words,  that  baptism  introduces  the  child  to  member- 
ship  of  some  kind  in  the  church ;  but  we  see  no  place  for  him 
there,  any  more  than  for  a  vegetable.  We  thus  stand  for  a 
rite-  that  is  insignificant,  or  even  absurd.  Or  if  we  call  it  a- 
dedication  of  the  child,  the  child  is  only  dedicated  to  our  own 
unbelief,  not  to  the  grace  of  God  ;  for  we  do  not  really  suppose 
that  the  grace  of  God  can  have  any  thing  to  do  with  it,  till 
after  it  is  of  an  age  to  dedicate  itself.  Is  it  not  more  reasonable, 
to  receive  the  rite  as  a  seal  of  faith,  a  token  of  spiritual  reno- 
vation,— understanding  that  God  has  graciously  included  him 


168  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

in  the  covenant  with  us.  given  us  the  helm  of  his  moral  exist- 
ence, authorized  us  to  ask  a  rite  for  him  before  he  is  of  an  age 
to  ask  it  for  himself,  and  empowered  us,  by  virtue  of  His  own 
co-operation,  so  to  guide  him  that,  when  we  give  him  over  the 
helm,  we  shall  give  it  to  him  as  a  Christian  youth.  This  is 
Christian  education, — not  the  Baptist  scheme  of  individualism, 
which  conceives  it  to  be  absurd  for  the  parent  to  work  any 
thing  spiritual  in  his  child's  infancy,  lest  he  should  not  believe 
for  himself;  which  tells  the  church  that  after  she  has  given 
existence,  and  the  egg  of  immortality  is  produced,  her  motherly 
duty  is,  to  copy  the  instinct  of  the  Nubian  ostrich,  and  leave  it 
hidden  in  the  sand ! 

If,  too,  our  view  is  false,  or  the  current  opinion  is  true,  how 
miserable  is  the  age  of  childhood  !  If  it  may  not  grow  up  in 
holy  virtue, — if  it  must  grow  up  in  sin,  till  it  comes  to  some 
definite  age,  before  it  is  a  candidate  for  repentance  and  a  new 
life,  then,  during  that  interval,  is  it  seen  to  lie  under  a  doom 
more  dismal  and  hapless  than  any  other  we  are  acquainted 
with  in  this  world.  Capable  of  sin — incapable  of  repentance ! 
This  too  of  an  age  most  amiable  and  lovely  and  nearest  to  inno- 
cence !  Might  not  the  church  better  say,  in  her  Saviour's  name, 
"  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  and  clasp  it  to  her  arms. 
If  our  views  on  this  head  are  admitted, — if  if  is  God's  design 
in  the  household  covenant,  that  the  children  shall  grow  up  to 
be  Christians,  and  this  result  may  and  ought  to  be  realized, 
then,  most  clearly,  is  it  seen  that  there  is  a  law  of  spiritual 
population  in  the  church,  analogous  to  the  law  of  physical  pop- 
ulation in  states.  This  we  verily  believe,  and  we  consider  it 
to  be  one  of  the  mightiest  elements  of  growth  and  power  in  the 
grand  economy  of  the  church ;  for  it  is  demonstrable,  that  by 
virtue  of  this  simple  element  of  internal  growth,  the  church  of 
Christ  will  soon  fill  the  world.  As  the  Saxon  race,  when  they 
came  to  these  western  shores,  lived  down  the  native  inhabit- 
ants, and  rolled  the  tide  of  population  over  them,  so  if  the 
church  were  fulfilling  the  design  of  God  in  the  household  cove- 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  169 

nant,  and  training  up  the  generations  of  her  children  in  piety, 
she  would,  by  this  simple  law  of  internal  increase,  and  without 
a  single  conversion  from  without,  overlive  the  world  and  make 
it  her  own.  For  it  will  be  observed,  that  a  large  proportion  of 
the  world  without  are  continually  perishing  by  vice  and  extrav- 
agance, and,  when  they  do  not  perish  themselves,  are  entail- 
ing the  effects  of  their  profligacy  on  the  diseased  and  half-en- 
dowed constitution  of  their  families.  This  is  not  true  in  the 
families  of  the  church.  Habits  of  holy  virtue  too,  as  we  have 
already  shown,  would  secure  the  means  of  living  in  greater 
abundance,  and  thus  make  the  Christian  families,  on  the  aver- 
age, more  vigorous  and  healthy.  And  thus,  by  a  stronger  law 
of  increase,  the  church  must,  at  some  day  more  or  less  distant, 
over-multiply  the  world,  and  take  possession  of  the  whole 
planet.  What  but  this  is  the  promise  of  the  covenant  itself, 
"  I  will  multiply  thy  seed  as  the  stars  of  the  heaven,  and  as  the 
sand  which  is  upon  the  sea  shore ;  and  thy  seed  shall  possess 
the  gate  of  his  enemies ;  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  be  blessed  ?"  The  family  of  Abraham  was  iden- 
tical with  the  church,  and  the  promise  is,  that  it  shall  over- 
populate  and  fill  the  world. 

A  fourth  resource  of  the  church,  lies  in  her  capacity  to  un- 
fold more  of  character  than  the  world  without.  We  here  speak 
of  character,  not  in  its  most  internal  sense,  or  as  related  to 
God,  but  of  character  as  a  power  over  men,  to  influence  their 
feeling  and  command  their  homage.  Christian  character,  in 
this  view  of  it,  is  that  which  by  principle  and  worth  and  beauty 
of  feeling  in  one  man,  approves  itself  to  another,  and  becomes 
a  controlling  and  assimilative  power  over  him.  It  is  no  easy 
thing  to  beget,  in  minds  not  brought  up  in  society,  even  a  sense 
of  character.  The  million  live  and  die  without  once  conceiv- 
ing it.  But  no  man,  however  dull  or  rude,  can  become  a  Chris- 
tian without,  at  least,  having  some  conception  of  character 
awakened.  He  must  know  himself  and  God,  and  himself  as 
15 


170  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

morally  related  to  the  moral  goodness  and  excellence  of  God. 
He  can  not  smite  upon  his  breast,  like  the  publican,  without  a 
painful  discovery  of  himself  to  prompt  it ;  nor  without  so  much 
as  daring  to  lift  his  eyes  to  heaven,  can  he  cry,  with  the  publi- 
can, "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner,"  and  not  have  felt,  in 
some  degree,  the  greatness  and  purity  of  God.  Behold  a  vile, 
brutish  person,  bowed  in  tears,  and  trembling  with  inward  hor- 
ror, before  the  tremendous  majesty  and  glory  of  God !  Some 
elementary  notion  of  character  is  there  descending  upon  him, 
in  that  shuddering  before  Jehovah ;  it  is  the  sense  of  character 
that  makes  him  shudder.  And  how  can  a  life  be  spent  in  holy 
communion  with  God,  the  infinitely  perfect, — how  modeled 
after  Christ,  the  only  perfect  life  ever  displayed  in  humanity, 
without  attaining  to  a  nicer  and  more  heavenly  sense  of  cha- 
racter, and  receiving  its  impress.  The  principles  of  religion, 
too,  truth,  justice,  rectitude,  benevolence,  are  all  such  as  need 
to  lie  at  the  basis  of  a  good  and  great  character.  The  feelings 
and  manners  of  Christian  piety — courtesy,  gentleness,  conde- 
scension, pity,  gratitude,  forgiveness,  charity — are  all  such  as 
can  not  be  dispensed  with,  in  the  construction  of  a  worthy  and 
beautiful  character.  Then  consider  the  whole  discipline  of  a 
Christian  life,  as  a  perpetual  exercise  in  character .  No  sooner 
does  one  become  a  disciple,  than  he  is  put  upon  it  as  a  study, 
how  to  honor  his  calling,  to  be  neither  too  much  nor  too  little, 
to  be  just  and  yet  merciful,  to  be  charitable  and  yet  judicious, 
when  to  resist  enemies  and  when  to  suffer  them,  to  be  cheerful 
without  being  light,  serious  yet  not  morose,  when  to  argue  and 
when  to  be  silent,  when  to  forgive  and  when  to  bring  to  jus- 
tice, when  to  feel  and  when  to  reason,  to  have  high  emotions 
and  not  be  a  framist,  to  be  independent  without  obstinacy,  to 
believe  without  credulity,  to  have  high  experiences  without 
advertising  closet  transactions,  to  have  a  speech  seasoned  with 
salt  yet  clear  of  cant,  to  be  united  to  God  and  not  disunited 
from  man.  How  can  a  disciple  be  drilled  in  such  exercises,  all 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  171 

his  life  long,  without  becoming  more  or  less  expert  in  discrimi- 
nating character  in  himself  and  others? 

The  church  then  is  to  her  disciples  a  perpetual  school  of  char- 
acter. We  by  no  means  affirm  that  all  who  take  the  Chris- 
tian name  become  examples  of  moral  excellence  and  beauty. 
Many  seem  never  to  have  a  thought  about  character,  after 
they  have  once  become  satisfied  of  their  conversion.  We  say 
of  such,  when  they  die,  perhaps,  that  in  the  judgment  of  char- 
ity they  were  Christians,  and  truly  our  charity  covers  a  multi- 
tude of  sins.  At  the  same  time,  there  are  unfolded  in  the 
church  innumerable  examples  of  character  from  all  the  walks 
of  life,  such  as  can  not  be  found  elsewhere— examples  which 
dignify  eminence  and  power,  cause  obscurity  to  shine,  and 
make  adversity  smile — the  gentle,  the  pure,  the  good,  the  up- 
right, the  firm,  the  heroic,  the  holy. 

And  how  great  a  power  is  character !  Out  of  God's  own 
person  and  his  truth,  there  is  no  other  so  mighty  and  persua- 
sive. It  is  that  eloquence  which  man  least  knows  how  to  re- 
sist. It  provokes  no  resistance.  Being  itself  only  truth  in  life, 
it  suffers  no  answer.  If  the  beholder  turns  away  to  escape  the 
homage  he  feels,  its  image  still  goes  with  him,  to  reprove  his 
evil  deeds  and  call  him  every  hour  to  God. 

Truth  is  another  of  the  resources  of  the  church,  a  power 
that  God  has  deposited  in  her  bosom  to  be  developed  there. 
Having  the  Christian  Scriptures,  she  may  therefore  boldly  say, 
what  is  denied  to  all  the  schools  of  philosophy,  that  she  has  the 
truth  of  God.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that,  while  they  are  ever 
displacing  each  other,  and  after  their  short  day  of  splendor  IB 
over,  retiring  into  oblivion,  the  church  still  holds  her  place, 
gathers  new  strength  from  every  assault,  and  stands  erect  as 
the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth.  The  great  masters  of  phi- 
losophy and  champions  of  infidelity  die,  by  turns,  into  glimmer 
and  darkness  ;  but  Christ  the  Messiah  is  the  sun  of  righteous- 
ness rolling  up  into  noon  and  the  fullness  of  day.  Already  has 


172  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

it  been  proved,  by  an  experience  of  eighteen  hundred  years, 
that  the  church's  truth  is  invincible.  It  speaks  to  man,  and  its 
words  have  their  own  evidence  in  them.  If  reason  reels  away 
from  its  mysteries,  reason  yet  returns  dissatisfied  without 
them.  If  human  wisdom  invents  a  better  God,  and  a  govern- 
ment more  according  to  its  mind,  human  wisdom  is  soon  frozen 
by  its  own  meager  truth,  and  returns  to  Christ  for  warmth. 
Such  is  the  Christian  truth,  the  virtues  it  teaches  so  excellent, 
the  hopes  it  offers  so  definite  and  so  consonant  to  human  wants 
— it  brings  God  so  near  and  displays  the  divine  feeling  so  at- 
tractively, it  paints  human  character  so  truly  and  offers  a  rem- 
edy so  adequate,  that  if  spurned  or  rejected,  it  will  yet  be 
sought. 

We  do  not  say  that  all  the  points  of  Christian  doctrine  are 
settled,  or  that  nothing  remains  to  be  done  to  unfold  their  rela- 
tions, and  set  them  forth  in  the  harmony  of  their  reasons. 
Neither  do  we  say  that  there  is  no  disagreement  about  the  es- 
sential truths  of  the  Christian  scheme.  That  were  to  main- 
tain that  its  victory  is  already  complete.  We  only  say  that 
God's  everlasting  truth  is  now  in  the  bosom  of  the  church. 
There  is  a  process  going  on  too,  in  the  church,  from  age  to 
age,  whereby  her  views  of  the  Christian  plan  are  being  filled 
up,  rectified,  and  systematized  in  their  reasons.  She  is  in- 
structing herself  also  by  her  own  lapses  and  apostasies.  Almost 
all  the  possible  errors  she  has  invented  and  tried  out.  Those 
bold  extravagancies  of  human  learning,  now  so  prevalent,  and 
by  which  so  many  are  perhaps  unduly  frightened,  are  among 
the  last,  and,  we  trust,  not  least  fruitful  efforts  of  aberration. 
Taken  in  the  larger  view,  she  is,  in  all  these,  only  making  her 
experiments  to  settle  the  truth,  unmasking  her  artillery,  draw- 
ing it  forth  into  ranks  and  orders,  and  preparing  by  her  lines 
of  battle  encircling  the  globe,  to  complete  her  warfare  against 
unbelief,  by  a  universal  and  sweeping  defeat. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  resources  possessed  by  the  church,  to 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  173 

be  developed  by  growth,  is  drawn  from  her  internal  union  with, 
and  participation  of,  the  divine  nature— greater  than  either 
wealth,  talent,  internal  population,  character,  or  truth — greater 
than  all  together,  and  that,  because  it  includes  them  all.  The 
church  of  God  is  a  habitation  of  the  Spirit,  the  body  itself  of 
Christ,  and  so  the  fullness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all.  Let  it 
not  be  deemed  an  irreverence,  if  we  speak  of  a  progressive  de- 
velopment of  this  divine  element  in  the  church. 

The  piety  of  the  church  is  itself  such.  The  life  of  Christian 
piety  is  the  life  of  God ;  its  growth  a  development  of  that  life. 
When  the  holy  life  begins,  in  a  renewed  mind,  whether  infant 
or  adult,  it  is  only  a  capacity  or  seed  of  future  growth ;  that 
growth  but  a  fuller  participation  of  the  divine  nature,  in  its 
power,  goodness,  and  beauty.  The  same  is  true  of  the  church 
in  its  collective  capacity.  The  amount  of  her  existence  is 
measured,  not  by  her  numbers  or  the  noise  she  makes,  but  by 
her  participation  of  the  life  of  God.  According  to  her  measure 
in  this,  is  she  clear  in  understanding,  benevolent  in  emotion, 
self-denying  in  action,  patient  in  suffering,  powerful  in  exam- 
ple. Additions  of  grace  are  indispensable  to  all  increments  of 
power.  A  small  root  cannot  support  a  large  tree.  An  army 
of  spiritual  invalids  can  not  vanquish  the  world.  Union  to  God 
is  the  soul  and  success  of  all  good  efforts.  Without  this,  we 
only  drag  the  church  on  painfully  after  us,  as  if  it  were  an  idol 
car,  by  the  pull  of  many  hands.  But  if  we  are  filled  with  holy 
piety,  and  earnest  practical  love  to  the  cause  of  salvation,  (hen 
the  church  has  liberty  and  inspiration,  becomes  itself  a  crea- 
ture of  life,  like  the  wheels  of  Ezekiel,  because  the  spirit  of  the 
living  creatures  is  in  it. 

There  is  also  another  aspect  to  this  growth  of  piety.  .\ot 
only  does  the  internal  life  of  the  tree  extend  its  reach,  but  the 
outward  bulk  manifests  the  fact.  The  church,  in  like  manner, 
is  to  the  world's  eye  a  development  of  God.  Being  the  body  of 

Christ,  she  is,  in  some  sense,  though  not  in  the  sense  of  Mr. 
15* 


174  GROWTH,  NOT 'CONQUEST, 

Brownson  and  the  Papists,  a  perpetual  Christ  in  the  earth — in 
the  sense,  we  mean,  not  oi'her  political  organization,  but  of  her 
practical  or  internal  spirit.  By  this  she  becomes  the  light  of 
the  world,  as  her  Saviour  was — a  perpetual  manifestation  of 
the  Spirit,  or  what  is  the  same,  of  the  Divine  Nature.  This  too 
is  the  main  source  of  her  power  over  the  world.  It  is  not  be- 
cause she  runs  to  and  fro,  because  she  strives  and  cries,  but  be- 
cause she  lives  a  life  above  nature, — herein  lies  her  capacity  of 
impression.  Without  saying,  '  this  is  God,'  the  world  is  moved 
as  by  the  presence  and  power  of  God.  Her  Christ-like  graces 
of  love,  purity,  truth,  and  beneficence,  are  a  divine  atmosphere 
about  her,  and  her  atmosphere  enters  the  breath  and  the  blood, 
while  her  arguments  only  play  about  the  head.  To  approach 
her  is  to  be  convinced  of  sin.  righteousness,  and  a  judgment  to 
come.  To  be  thus,  in  her  Christian  growth,  a  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit,  to  have  the  divine  nature  flowing  out  thus  im pal- 
pably but  really  on  the  world,  gives  her  an  assimilative  power 
in  the  nature  of  vitality.  So  that  if  she  gains  a  convert,  wheth- 
er at  home  or  in  the  ends  of  the  earth,  (for  place  is  nothing,)  it 
is  not  by  external  conquest  but  by  virtue  of  her  own  internal 
life— the  life  of  God. 

Furthermore,  there  is,  we  apprehend,  a  certain  fixed  relation 
between  those  exertions  of  spiritual  influence  which  are  imme- 
diate, and  those  which  flow  mediately  through  the  church ;  else 
why  has  not  the  Spirit  left  the  church  behind  and  poured  itself, 
as  a  rushing  mighty  wind,  into  the  bosom  of  the  whole  world  in 
a  day  ?  There  needed  to  be  an  objective  influence,  as  well  as 
one  internal;  else  the  subject  of  the  Spirit  would  not  know  or 
guess  to  what  his  internal  motions  are  attributable,  and  might 
deem  them  only  nervous  or  hysteric  effects,  or  possibly,  if  a 
heathen,  the  work  of  some  enchanter  or  demon.  But  the  ob- 
jective influence  of  a  holy  life,  coupled  with  holy  teachings  from 
the  church,  starts  the  contemplative  powers,  occupies  the 
knowing  principle,  explains  the  immediate  influence  and  its 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OP  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  175 

object,  offers  to  view  in  its  own  holy  exercises  the  molds  of  ex- 
ercises to  be  wrought  in  the  observer,  and,  by  its  own  assimi- 
lative and  persuasive  sympathies  gives  to  the  new  feeling  in 
him  its  own  heavenly  type  and  form.  If  we  are  right  in  this 
view,  if  there  is  a  fixed  relation  between  the  mediate  and  im- 
mediate influences  of  the  Spirit,  such  that  one  measures  the 
other,  (and  we  could  urge  many  additional  reasons  for  the 
opinion, )  then  are  we  brought  fairly  out  upon  the  sublime  con- 
clusion, that  the  growth  or  progress  of  Christian  piety  in  the 
church,  if  it  shall  take  place,  offers  the  expectation  of  a  corres- 
pondent progress  in  the  development  of  those  spiritual  influen- 
ces that  are  immediate.  The  mediate  and  immediate  are  both 
identical  at  the  root.  If  therefore  the  church  unfolds  her  piety 
as  a  divine  life,  which  is  one,  the  divine  life  will  display  its  ac- 
tivity as  much  more  potently  and  victoriously  without,  which 
is  the  other.  And  as  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which  was  first 
as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  advances  in  the  last  days  towards 
the  stature  of  a  tree,  the  more  it  may  advance ;  for  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  pour  himself  into  the  world,  as  much  more  intensely 
and  profusely.  Grant  us,  O  God  !  that  we  may  not  disappoint 
ourselves  of  a  hope  so  glorious,  by  attempts  to  extend  thy 
church  without  that  holy  growth  of  piety  on  which  our  success 
depends.  Pour  thyself  in  thy  fullness,  and  as  a  gale  of  purity, 
into  our  bosom  !  Expel  all  schemes  that  are  not  begun  in  Thee ! 
Let  there  be  good  desires  in  us,  that  our  works  may  be  truly 
good  !  And  that  Thou  mayest  do  .thy  will  in  the  earth,  do  it 
in  us  perfectly ! 

We  offer  these  thoughts  to  the  public,  not  without  having 
duly  considered  their  import.  We  commend  them  to  the 
special  regard  of  all  thoughtful  Christians.  Do  we  not  give 
utterance  to  a  great  and  salutary  truth — one  that  ought  to 
preside  over  all  Christian  plans  and  efforts,  one  that  is  a  ne- 
cessary guard  against  all  Christian  dissipation,  and  one  that  is 


]76  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

specially  needed  in  this  day  to  stimulate  that  measure  of  piety 
which  our  undertakings  presuppose  and  require  ?  If  what  we 
have  said  throws  a  heavy  shade  of  discouragement  over  all 
dead  works  and  formal  charities,  can  it  be  too  heavy  ?  At  the 
same  time,  could  we  otter  a  truth  that  is  more  cheering  to  all 
that  is  worthy  of  encouragement  1 

It  would  be  well  if  we  might  recur,  in  closing,  to  all  the 
points  presented  in  our  enumeration  of  the  resources  of  growth 
in  the  church,  and  rectify  some  deficiencies  and  errors  that  are 
frequently  noticeable  in  regard  to  them.  We  hope  we  have 
left  an  impression  that  more  piety,  a  closer  and  more  practical 
union  to  God,  is  indispensable.  If  we  might  speak  of  the 
talents  of  the  church,  we  would  say,  read  the  parable  of  the 
talents.  It  is  the  duty  of  every  Christian,  as  he  hopes  to  be 
accepted  of  his  Judge,  to  take  his  mind  out  of  the  napkin,  to 
double  all  his  powers  by  cultivation, —a  duty  that  is  grievously 
neglected,  and  one  most  intimately  connected  with  the  triumph 
of  the  Gospel. 

There  is  a  great  and  lamentable  deficiency  of  what  we  have 
called  character.  We  have  much  to  say  (not  too  much)  of  the 
heart,  the  internal  principle  of  religion,  and  the  state  of  the 
disciple  as  related  to  God.  But  we  either  say  too  little,  or 
what  we  say  has  far  too  little  effect,  of  those  charities,  those 
duties  of  society,  of  good  neighborhood  and  good  citizenship, 
in  which  human  life  is  spent, — the  kind  and  graceful  feelings, 
honesty,  mercy,  generosity, — every  thing  that  is  necessary  to 
outward  dignity  and  beauty, — in  one  word,  character.  Many 
Christians  seem  never  to  attain  to  a  proper  sense  of  character. 
Indeed  the  attainment  is  a  somewhat  difficult  one,  to  those  who 
have  not  been  trained  to  it,  in  their  early  education.  The 
church  suffers  an  immense  loss  of  weight  and  influence  from 
this  source.  Those  who  are  called  Unitarian  Christians,  it 
will  be  observed,  on  the  other  hand,  have  much  to  say  of  char- 
acter, and  less  of  the  distinguishing  principle  of  piety,  as  inter- 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.      177 

nal.  Nor  is  what  they  say  without  effect.  If  they  encourage 
or  leave  room  for  the  error  of  supposing  that  the  substance  of 
piety  is  made  up  of  those  individual  acts,  which  are  properly 
only  so  many  manifestations  of  it,  and  not  of  internal  principle 
as  related  to  God,  they  do  at  least  secure,  in  many  cases,  acts 
and  manifestations  that  extort  praise  and  respect.  We  have 
sometimes  thought,  that  if  a  practical  Unitarian  and  an  ortho- 
dox disciple  could  -be  melted  into  one,  they  would  make  a  Chris- 
tian. This  at  least  will  do  to  illustrate  our  meaning.  There 
needs  to  be  more  done  for  character — to  produce  a  sense  of 
character,  what  it  is,  what  is  necessary  to  it,  and  why  it  is  ne- 
cessary. A  rude,  graceless  piety,  a  zeal  that  hurries  by  things 
that  are  of  good  report,  is  needlessly  odious.  If  it  be  a  well 
tempered,  it  is  yet  an  awkward  instrument,  wherewith  to  con- 
vert the  world.  Should  not  the  preachers  of  Christ  have  more 
to  do  with  his  external  life,  which  is  itself  the  model  of  Chris- 
tian beauty  and  goodness?  Might  they  not  often  instruct 
themselves  as  well  as  their  people,  by  this  model  of  character  ? 
If  they  had  a  nicer  sense  of  character  themselves,  might  it  not 
add  much  to  the  dignity  and  power  of  their  ministry,  as  well 
as  to  their  personal  acceptableness  ? — moderating  austerity, 
softening  hardness,  expanding  contractedness,  making  the  un- 
worldly spirit  amiable,  assisting  them  to  be  accessible  with 
dignity,  and  dignified  without  distance,  and  preparing  them  to 
be  pastors,  not  drivers  of  their  flocks— or  in  failure  of  that, 
driven  by  them. 

In  regard  to  family  training  we  have  more  to  say.  We  have 
spoken  of  the  immense  resource,  the  fertile  capacity  of  internal 
growth  possessed  by  the  church  in  her  children,  if  trained  up 
in  piety  according  to  the  intent  of  the  household  covenant.  By 
the  prevalent  misconception  of  this  covenant  and  of  Christian 
education  under  it,  we  suffer  manifold  and  grievous  mischiefs. 
First  of  all  we  lose  our  children,  which  is  too  great  a  loss. 
Next,  what  is  scarcely  less  deplorable,  we  pervert  the  style 
and  habit  of  our  piety. 


]78  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

One  principal  reason  why  we  are  so  often  deficient  in  char- 
acter, or  outward  beauty,  is,  that  piety  begins  so  late  in  life, 
having  thus  to  maintain  a  perpetual  and  unequal  war  with  pre- 
.vious  habit.  If  it  was  not  true  of  Paul,  it  is  yet  too  generally 
true,  that  one  born  out  of  due  time  will  be  found  out  of  due 
time,  more  often  than  he  should  be  afterwards — unequal,  in- 
consistent with  himself,  acting  the  old  man  instead  of  the  new. 
Having  the  old  habit  to  war  with,  it  is  often  too  strong  for  him. 
To  make  a  graceful  and  complete  Christian  character,  it  needs 
itself  to  be  the  habit  of  existence  ;— not  a  grape  grafted  on  a 
bramble.  And  this,  it  will  be  seen,  requires  a  Christian  child- 
hood in  the  subject.  Having  this,  the  gracious  or  supernatural 
character  becomes  itself  more  nearly  natural,  and  possesses 
the  peculiar  charm  of  naturalness,  which  is  necessary  to  the 
highest  moral  beauty. 

It  results  also  from  our  mistaken  views  of  Christian  training, 
that  we  fall  into  a  notion  of  religion  that  is  mechanical.  We 
thrust  our  children  out  of  the  covenant  first,  and  insist,  in  spite 
of  it,  that  they  shall  grow  up  in  the  same  spiritual  state  as  if 
their  father  and  mother  were  heathens.  Then  we  go  out,  at 
least  on  certain  occasions,  to  convert  them  back,  as  if  they  ac- 
tually were  heathens.  Our  only  idea  of  increase  is  of  that 
which  accrues  by  means  of  a  certain  abrupt  technical  experi- 
ence. Led  avvay  thus  from  all  thought  of  internal  growth  in 
the  church,  efforts  to  secure  conversions  take  an  external  char- 
acter, which  is  not  proper  to  them.  Accretion  displaces 
growth.  The  church  is  gathered  as  a  foundling  hospital,  and 
lest  it  should  not  be  so,  its  own  children  are  reduced  to  found- 
lings. Immediate  repentance  proclaimed,  insisted  on  and  real- 
ized in  an  abrupt  change,  proper  only  to  those  who  are  indeed 
aliens  and  enemies,  is  the  only  hope  or  inlet  of  the  church.  We 
can  not  understand  how  the  spiritual  nation  should  grow  and 
populate  and  become  powerful  within  itself;— nothing  will 
serve  but  the  immediate  annexation  of  Texas ! 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  J79 

Piety  becomes  inconstant,  and  revivals  of  religion  take  an 
exaggerated  character  from  the  same  causes.  If  all  Christian 
success  is  measured  by  the  count  of  technical  conversions  from 
without,  then  it  follows  that  nothing  is  done  when  conversions 
cease  to  be  counted.  The  harvest  closes  not  with  feasting  but 
with  famine.  Despair  cuts  oft'  Christian  motive.  The  tide  is 
spent,  let  us  anchor  during  the  ebb.  It  is  well  indeed  to  live 
very  piously  in  the  families,  still  there  is  nothing  depending  on 
it.  The  children  will  be  good  subjects  enough  lor  conversion 
without.  The  piety  of  the  church  is  thus  made  to  be  desultory 
and  irregular  by  system.  The  idea  of  conquest  displaces  the 
idea  of  growth.  Whereas,  if  it  were  understood  that  Christian 
education,  or  training  in  the  families,  is  to  be  itself  a  process 
of  domestic  conversion,  that  as  a  child  weeps  under  a  frown 
and  smiles  at  the  command  of  a  smile,  so  spiritual  influences 
maybe  streaming  into  his  being  from  the  handling  of  the  nur- 
sery and  the  whole  manner  and  temperament  ol  the  house,  pro- 
ducing what  will  ever  after  be  fundamental  impressions  of  his 
being ;  then  the  hearth,  the  table,  the  society  and  affections  of 
the  house,  would  all  feel  the  presence  of  a  practical  religious 
motive.  The  homes  would  be  Christian  homes,  and  life  itself 
a  stream  of  genial  pietyy 

Here  too  is  the  greatest  impediment  to  a  true  missionary 
spirit.  The  habit  of  conquest  runs  to  dissipation  and  irregular- 
ity. It  is  as  if  a  nation,  forgetting  its  own  internal  resources, 
were  scouring  the  seas,  and  trooping  up  and  down  the  world, 
in  pursuit  of  prize  money  and  plunder,  forsaking  the  loom  and 
the  plow,  and  all  the  regular  growths  of  industry.  Whereas, 
if  the  church  were  unfolding  the  riches  of  the  covenant  at  her 
firesides  and  tables— if  the  children  were  identified  with  religion 
from  the  first,  and  grew  up  in  a  Christian  love  of  man,  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  would  not  throw  itself  up  in  irregular  jets,  but 
would  flow  as  a  river.  And  so  much  is  there  in  this,  that  we 


180  GROWTH,  NOT  CONQUEST, 

do  not  believe  it  possible  to  produce  a  steady,  patient,  practical 
spirit  of  missions,  except  through  the  education  of  childhood. 

We  ask  then  of  every  parent,  that  he  will  seriously  review 
his  impressions  on  this  subject.  Let  him  study  the  ductility  of 
childhood  to  parental  influence,  and  observe  how  easily  reli- 
gious impressions  are  excited,  and  all  the  prejudices  of  the  soul 
turned  on  the  side  of  religion.  Let  him  try  the  conjecture,  how 
far  God  has  made,  or  will,  by  his  presence,  make  what  is  lov- 
ingly exhibited  in  his  own  life,  communicable  or  translatable  to 
the  childish  mind.  Dropping  the  idea  of  a  technical  experience, 
as  proper  to  older  persons,  let  him  see  how  far  by  the  divine 
aid,  really  good  and  right  dispositions  toward  God  and  man 
may  be  called  into  exercise.  And  if  he  has  hitherto  considered 
Christian  education  to  be  synonymous  with  lecturing  and  re- 
proof, lei  him  consider  the  text,  Fathers  provoke  not  your 
children  to  wrath  lest  they  be  discouraged.  Let  family  religion 
be  a  domestic  miniature  of  heaven,  not  a  dull  formality.  Let 
him  be  there,  as  the  gardener  among  his  opening  flowers,  ex- 
pecting their  fragrance  and  beauty,  not  that  they  will  all  be 
thistles — expecting  it,  because  God  hath  promised,  and  the 
dews  of  his  grace  are  perpetually  felt. 

But  we  must  not  leave  our  subject  in  words  of  reproof  and 
correction.  The  truth  we  have  endeavored  to  set  forth,  is  one 
of  high  promise  to  the  church.  To  see  its  whole  import  at  a 
glance,  imagine  the  church  of  God  to  be  a  spiritual  nation, 
founded  or  begun  by  a  Colony  descended  from  the  skies.  It 
alights  upon  our  globe  as  its  chartered  territory.  Can  this 
Spiritual  Colony  spread  itself  over  the  whole  territory  of  the 
planet,  and  absorb  all  the  human  races  in  its  dominion  ?  You 
find  that  it  can  unfold  more  of  wealth  and  talent,  by  far,  than 
the  present  living  races  of  inhabitants.  It  has  within  itself  a 
stronger  law  of  population,  as  well  as  a  mighty  power  to  win 
over  and  assimilate  the  nations.  Its  people  have  more  beauty 
and  weight  of  character,  to  exalt  their  predominance.  They 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS.  Igl 

have  great  truths  for  their  armor  of  assault  and  defense,  which 
the  world  can  not  match  or  parry,  and  the  superior  wisdom  of 
which  they  must  ultimately  yield  to.  And  what  is  more  than 
all,  they  are  found  to  be  all  partakers  of  the  DIVINE  NA- 
TDRE,  which  they  have  brought  down  with  them  to  be  un- 
folded in  their  history  and  make  it  powerful.  Having  in  itself 
elements  of  power  and  precedence  like  these,  not  to  believe  that 
the  Heavenly  Colony  will  finally  overspread  and  fill  the  world, 
is  to  deny  causes  their  effects,  and  pronounce  a  sentence  of 
futility  on  the  laws  of  nature  themselves.  God  too  has  testified 
in  regard  to  this  branch  of  his  planting— THEY  SHALL  INHERIT 
THE  LAND. 


16 


THE   ORGANIC   UNITY   OF   THE  FAMILY, 


JKR.  7  ;  18.  The  children  gather  wood,  and  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire,  and 
the  women  knead  dough,  to  make  cakes  to  the  queen  of  heaven,  and  to  pour  out 
drink  offerings  unto  other  gods,  that  they  may  provoke  me  to  anger. 

IN  this  lively  picture,  you  have  the  illustration  of  a  great  and 
momentous  truth — the  Organic  Unity  of  the  Family.  If  it  be 
an  idolatrous  family,  worshippers  of  the  moon,  for  example,  such 
is  the  organic  relation  of  the  members,  that  they  are  all  invol- 
ved together,  and  the  idol  worship  is  the  common  act  of  the 
house.  The  children  gather  wood,  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire, 
the  women  prepare  the  cakes  for  an  offering,  and  the  queen  of 
heaven  receives  it,  as  one  that  is  the  joint  product  of  the  whole 
family.  The  worship  is  family  worship ;  the  god  of  one  is  the 
god  of  all ;  the  spirit  of  one  the  spirit  of  all. 

And  so  it  is  with  all  family  transactions  and  feelings.  They 
implicate  ordinarily  the  whole  circle  of  the  house,  young  and 
old,  male  and  female,  fathers  and  mothers,  sons  and  daughters. 
They  act  together,  take  a  common  character,  accept  the  same 
delusions,  practice  the  same  sins  and  ought,  I  believe,  to  be 
sanctified  by  a  common  grace. 

This  most  serious  truth  is  one  that  is  exceedingly  remote 
from  the  present  age,  and  from  no  part  of  the  Christian  world 
more  remote  than  from  us.  \  All  our  modern  notions  and  spec- 
ulations have  taken  a  bent  towards  individualism.\  In  the  state, 


184  THE    ORGANIC    UNITY 

we  have  been  engaged  to  bring  out  the  civil  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual, asserting  his  proper  liberties  as  a  person,  and  vindica- 
ting his  conscience,  as  a  subject  of  God,  from  the  constraints  of 
force.  In  matters  of  religion,  we  have  burst  the  bonds  of  church 
authority,  and  erected  the  individual  mind  into  a  tribunal  of 

|  judgment  within  itself,  we  have  asserted  free  will  as  the  ground 
of  all  proper  responsibility,  and  framed  our  theories  of  religion 
BO  as  to  justify  the  incommunicable  nature  of  persons  as  distinct 
units.  While  thus  engaged,  we  have  well  nigh  lost,  as  was  to 
i  be  expected,  the  idea  of  organic  powers  and  relations.  The 
state,  the  church,  the  family,  have  ceased  to  be  regarded  as 
such,  according  to  their  proper  idea,  and  become  mere  collec- 
tions of  units.  A  national  life,  a  church  Hie,  a  family  life,  is  no 
longer  conceived,  or  perhaps  conceivable  by  many.  Instead  of 
being  wrought  together  and  penetrated,  to  some  extent,  by  his- 
toric laws  and  forces  common  to  all  the  members,  we  only  seem 

I  to  lie  as  seeds  piled  together,  without  any  terms_o£connexion, 
save  the  accident  of  proximity,  or  the  fact  that  we  all  belong  to 
the  heap.  And  thus  the  three  great  forms  of  organic  existence, 
which  God  has  appointed  for  the  race,  are  in  fact  lost  out  of 
mental  recognition.  The  conception  is  so  far  gone  that,  when 
the  fact  of  such  an  organic  relation  is  asserted,  our  enlightened 
public  will  stare  at  the  strange  conceit,  and  wonder  what  can 
be  meant  by  a  paradox  so  absurd. 

My  design,  at  the  present  time,  is  to  restore,  if  possible,  the 
conception  of  one  of  these  organic  forms,  viz.  the  family.  For 
though  we  have  gained  immense  advantages,  in  a  civil,  eccle- 
siastical and  religious  point  of  view,  by  our  modern  development 
of  individualism,  we  have  yet  run  ourselves  into  many  hurtful 
misapprehensions  on  all  these  subjects,  which,  if  they  are  not 
rectified,  will  assuredly  bring  disastrous  consequences.  And 
nowhere  consequences  more  disastrous  than  in  the  family, 
where  they  are  already  apparent,  though  not  fully  matured ; 
for  the  very  change  of  view,  by  which  we  have  cleared  individ- 


OF   THE    FAMILY.  185 

ual  responsibility,  in  our  discussions  of  free  will,  original  sin 
and  kindred  subjects,  has  operated,  in  another  direction,  to  di- 
minish responsibility,  where  most  especially  it  needs  to  be  felt, 
that  is,  in  Christian  families. 

What  then  do  we  mean  by  the  organic  unity  of  the  family  ? 
It  will  be  understood,  of  course,  that  we  do  not  speak  of  a  phys- 
ical or  vascular  connexion,  for,  after  birth,  there  is  no  such  con- 
nexion existing,  anymore  than  there  is  between  persons  of  dif- 
ferent families,  i  In  so  far,  however,  as  a  connexion  of  parentage, 
or  derivation  ha§"affected  the  character,  that  fact  must  be  inclu- 
ded, though  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  chief  element  in  the 
unity  asserted.  Perhaps  I  shall  be  understood  with  the  great- 
est facility,  if  I  say  thai  the  family  is  such  a  body,  that  a  power 
over  character  is  exerted  therein,  which  cannot  properly  be 
called  influence.  We  commonly  use  the  term  influence  to  de- 
note a  persuasive  power,  or  a  governmental  power,  exerted 
purposely,  and^jyith  a  conscious  design  to  effect  some  result  in 
the  subject.  In  maintaining  the  organic  unity  of  the  family,  I 
mean  to  assert,  that  a  power  is  exerted  by  parents  over  chil- 
dren, not  only  when  they  teach,  encourage,  persuade  and  gov- 
ern, but  without  any  purposed  control  whatever.  .\  The  bond  is 
so  intimate  that  they  do  it  unconsciously  and  undesignedly — 
they  must  do  it.  Their  character,  feelings,  spirit  and  principles 
must  propagate  themselves,  whether  they  will  or  not.  How- 
ever, as  influence,  in  the  sense  just  given,  cannot  be  received  by 
childhood,  prior  to  the  age  of  reason  and  deliberative  choice, 
tW  control  of  parents  purposely  exerted,  must  be  regarded,  - 
during  that  early  period,  as  an  absolute  force,  not  as  influence.  ~i 
All  such  acts  of  control  therefore  must,  in  metaphysical  propri- 
ety, and  as  far  as  the  child  is  concerned,  be  classed  under  the 
general  denomination  of  organic  causes.  And  thus  whatever 
power  over  character  is  exerted  in  families  one  side  of  consent, 
in  the  children,  and  even  before  they  have  come  to  the  age  of 
16* 


136  TIIE    ORGANIC    UNITY 

rational  choice,  must  be  taken  as  organic  power,  in  the  same 
way  as  if  the  effect  accrued  under  a  law  of  simple  contagion. 
So  too  when  the  child  performs  acts  of  will,  under  parental 
direction,  that  involve  results  of  character,  without  knowing 
or  considering  that  they  do,  these  must  be  classed  in  the  same 
manner. 

In  general,  then,  we  find  the  organic  unity  of  the  family,  in 
every  exertion  of  power  over  character,  which  is  not  exerted 
and  received  as  influence  ;  that  is  with  a  design  to  address  the 
choice  on  one  side,  and  a  sense  of  responsible  choice  on  the 
other.  Or,  to  use  language  more  popular,  we  conceive  the 
manners,  personal  views,  prejudices,  practical  motives  and 
spirit  of  the  house,  as  an  atmosphere  which  passes  into  all  and 
pervades  all,  as  naturally  as  the  air  they  breathe.  This,  how- 
ever, not  in  any  such  absolute  or  complete  sense  as  to  leave  no 
room  for  individual  distinctions.  Sometimes  the  two  parents 
will  have  a  very  different  spirit  themselves,  though  the  grace 
of  God  is  pledged  to  make  the  better,  if  it  be  truly  right  and 
hindered  by  no  gross  inconsistencies,  victorious.  Sometimes 
the  child,  passing  into  the  sphere  of  other  causes,  as  in  the 
school,  the  church,  neighboring  families,  or  general  society, 
will  emerge  and  take  a  character  partially  distinct — partially  I 
say,  never  wholly.  The  order  of  the  house  will  always  be  in 
his  garments,  and  the  internal  difficulties  with  which  he  has  to 
struggle,  will  spring  of  the  family  seeds  planted  in  his  nature. 

Having  carefully  stated  thus  what  I  mean  by  the  organic 
unity  of  the  family,  I  next  proceed  to  inquire  whether  any  such 
unity  exists  ?  And  here  it  is  worth  noticing — 

1.  That  there  is  nothing  in  this  view,  which  conflicts  with 
the  proper  individuality  of  persons  and  their  separate  responsi- 
bility. We  have  gained  immense  advantages,  in  modern  times, 
as  regards  society,  government  and  character,  by  liberating 
and  exalting  the  individual  man.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  under- 


OP    THE    FAMILY.  187 

r~- 

rate  these  advantages,  or  to  bring  them  into  jeopardy.  UBut  a 
child  manifestly  cannot  be  a  proper  individual,  before  he  is  one. 
Nothing  can  be  gained  by  assujning  that  he  isjand,  if  it  is  not 
true,  much  is  sure  to  be  lostj  Besides,  we  are  never,  at  any 
age,  so  completely  individual  astp  be  clear  of  organic  connex- 
ions, that  affect  our  character.  \To  a  certain  extent  and  for 
certain  purposes,  we  are  individuals,  acting  each  from  his  own 
will.  Then  to  a  certain  extent  and  for  certain  other  purposes, 
we  are  parts  or  members  of  a  common  body,  as  truly  as  the 
limbs  of  a  tree.  We  have  an  open  side  in  our  nature,  where  a 
common  feeling  enters,  where  we  adhere,  and  through  which, 
we  are  actuated  by  a  common  will.  There  we  are  many — her  e 
we  are  one. 

It  is  remarkable  too  how  often,  without  knowing  it,  and,  as  it 
were  instinctively,  we  assume  the  fact  and  act  upon  it.  We 
do  it,  for  example,  as  between  nations,  where  it  is  not  so  much 
the  moral  life  as  the  national  that  constructs  the  supposed  unity. 
One  nation,  for  instance,  has  injured  or  oppressed  another — 
sought  to  crush,  or  actually  crushed  another  by  invasion.  A 
century  or  more  afterwards,  the  wrong  is  remembered  and  the 
injured  nation  takes  the  field,  still  burning  for  redress.  The 
history  of  Carthage  and  Rome  gives  us  an  example.  But,  sup- 
pose it  had  been  said — '  This  is  very  absurd  in  you  Carthagi- 
nians. The  Romans,  who  did  you  the  injury,  are  all  dead,  and 
those  who  now  bear  the  name  are  their  children's  children. 
They  have  done  you  no  injury  any  more  than  the  people  of 
Britain,  or  India.  Neither  is  it  the  walls,  or  streets,  or  temples 
of  Rome  that  have  injured  you.  The  Roman  territory  is  mere 
land  and  this  has  not  injured  you.  Why  then  go  to  war  with 
the  Romans?  How  absurd  to  think  of  redressing  your  old  inju- 
ries, by  a  war  with  men  who  have  done  you  no  harm  !'  Now 
it  was  by  just  this  kind  of  sophistry,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  proved, 
that  a  public  debt  is  obligatory  for  only  one  generation,  and  pos- 
sibly the  Carthaginians  might  have  been  epeculatively  stum- 


188  THE    ORGANIC    UNITY 

bled  by  such  reasonings.  Still  they  could  not  have  been  quite 
satisfied.  I  think,  of  their  validity.  Against  all  speculation, 
they  would  still  have  felt  that  the  proposed  war  was  somehow 
reconcilable  with  reason.  The  question  is  not  whether,  on 
Christian  principles,  they  were  right,  but  whether,  on  natural 
principles,  they  were  absurd.  This  probably  no  reader  of  the 
history  has  ever  felt.  For,  whether  it  squares  with  our  specu- 
lative notions  or  not,  we  do  all  tacitly  assume  the  organic  unity 
of  nations.  The  past  we  behold— living  in  the  present  and  all 
together  we  regard  as  one,  inhabited  by  the  common  life.  How 
much  more  true  is  this  (though  in  a  different  way)  in  families, 
where  the  common  life  is  so  nearly  absolute  over  the  members ; 
where  they  are  all  enclosed  within  the  four  walls  of  their  dwell- 
ings, partakers  in  a  common  blood,  in  common  interests,  wants, 
feelings  and  principles. 

2.  We  discover  the  organic  unity  of  families,  in  the  fact  that 
one  generation  is  the  natural  offspring  of  another.  And  so 
much  is  there  in  this,  that  the  children  almost  always  betray 
their  origin,  in  their  looks  and  features.  The  stamp  of  a  com- 
mon nature  is  on  them,  revealed  in  the  stature,  complexion, 
gait,  form  and  dispositions.  Sometimes  we  seem  to  see  remark- 
able exceptions.  But,  in  such  cases,  we  should  commonly  find, 
if  we  could  bring  up  to  view  the  ancestors  of  remoter  genera- 
tions, that  the  family  bond  is  still  perpetuated,  only  by  a  wider 
reach  of  connexion.  There  are  said  to  be  two  maiden  sisters, 
the  last  of  a  distinguished  family,  now  living  in  England,  who 
having  no  resemblance  to  any  near  ancestor,  have  yet  a  very 
striking  resemblance  to  the  portrait,  still  hanging  in  the  family 
mansion,  of  an  ancestor  seven  generations  back.  Indeed  I  have 
myself  distinguished,  by  their  looks,  the  relationship  of  two  per- 
sons, connected  by  a  common  derivation  eight  generations  back, 
and  who  more  closely  resembled  each  other  in  their  persons, 
than  either  his  nearest  kindred.  So  that,  in  cases  where  there 
seems  to  be  no  transmission  of  resemblances,  there  is  yet  a  prob- 


OF    THE    FAMILY.  189 

able  transmission,  only  one  that  is  covert  and  more  compre- 
hensive. Now  strong  external  resemblances  may  coexist  with 
marked  external  differences,  and  therefore  do  not  prove  a  coin- 
cidence of  character.  And  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  as  far 
as  they  go,  they  argue  a  transmission  of  capacities  and  dispo- 
sitions, which  enter  into  character,  as  remote  causes,  or  occa- 
sions. Nor  does  it  make  any  difference,  as  regards  the  matter 
in  question,  whether  souls,  or  spiritual  natures  come  into  being 
through  propagation,  or  not.  If  they  are  created,  as  some 
fancy,  by  the  immediate  inbreathing  of  God,  still  they  are  meas- 
ured by  the  house  they  are  to  live  in,  and  the  outward  man  is, 
in  all  cases,  a  fit  organ  for  the  person  within.  The  dispositions, 
tempers,  capacities,  the  natural  and,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
moral  character  have  the  outward  frame,  as  a  fit  organ  of  use 
and  expression.  It  will  even  be  observed  too  that,  in  cases 
where  there  is  a  remarkable  changeofcharacter.it  will  be  sig- 
nified, indue  time,  by  a  change  of  manner,  aspect  and  expres- 
sion. 

Besides  it  is  well  understood  that  qualities  received  by  train- 
ing and  not  in  themselves  natural,  do  also  pass  by  transmis- 
sion. It  is  said,  for  example,  that  the  dog  used  in  hunting  was 
originally  trained  by  great  care  and  effort,  and  that  now  almost 
no  training  is  necessary ;  for  the  artificial  quality  has  become,  to 
a  great  extent,  natural  in  the  stock.  We  have  also  a  most 
ominous  example  of  this  fact  in  the  human  species.  I  speak  of 
the  Jewish  race.  The  singular  devotion  of  this  race  to  money 
and  traffic  is  even  a  proverb.  But  their  ancestors,  of  the  an- 
cient times,  were  not  thus  distinguished.  They  were  a  simple, 
agricultural  people,  remarkable  for  nothing  but  their  religions 
opinions  and,  in  a  late  period  of  the  commonwealth,  for  their 
fanatical  heroism  and  obstinacy.  Whence  the  change  ?  His- 
tory gives  the  mournful  answer,  showing  them  to  view,  for 
long  ages,  as  a  hated  and  down-trodden  people,  allowed  no 
rights  in  the  soil,  shut  up  within  some  narrow  and  foul  precinct 


190  THE  ORGANIC   UNITY 

in  the  cities,  compelled  to  subsist  by  some  meagre  traffic,  denied 
every  possession  but  money,  and  suffered  to  keep  in  security 
not  even  that,  save  as  they  could  hide  it  in  secret  places  and 
cloak  the  suspicion  of  wealth  under  a  sordid  exterior.  They 
have  thus  been  educated  to  be  misers  by  the  extortions  and  the 
hatred  of  Christendom ;  till  finally  an  artificial  nature,  so  to 
speak,  has  been  formed  in  the  race,  and  we  take  it  even  as  the 
instinct  of  a  Jew,  to  get  money  by  small  traffic  and  sharp  bar- 
gains. So  there  is  little  room  to  doubt  that  every  sort  of  cha- 
racter and  employment,  even,  passes  an  effect  and  works  some 
predisposition  in  those  who  come  after. 

Coiild  we  enter  into  the  mental  habits  of  those  children,  who 
are  spoken  of  in  my  text,  and  trace  out  all  the  threads  of  their 
inward  character  and  disposition,  we  should  doubtless  find  some 
color  of  idolatry  in  the  fibre  of  their  very  being.  They  are  not 
such  as  they  would  be,  if  their  parents,  of  this  and  remote  gen- 
erations,' had  been  worshippers  of  the  true  God.  Their  tal- 
ents, dispositions,  propensities  are  different.  The  idol  god  ia 
in  their  faces  and  their  bones,  and  his  stamp  is  on  their  spirit. 
Not  in  such  a  sense  that  the  sin  of  idolatry  is  in  them — that  is 
inconceivable;  for  no  proper  sin  can  pass  by  transmission — but 
that  they  have  a  vicious,  or  prejudicial  infection  from  it,  a  dam- 
age accruing  from  their  historical  connection  and  that  of  their 
progenitors  with  it. 

Nor,  with  these  familiar  laws  of  physiology  before  us,  is  it 
reasonable  to  doubt  that,  where  there  is  a  long  line  of  godly 
fathers  and  mothers,  kept  up  in  regular  succession  lor  many 
generations,  a  religious  temperament  may  at  length  be  pro. 
duced,  that  is  more  in  the  power  of  conscience,  less  wayward 
as  regards  principles  of  integrity  and  more  pliant  to  the  Chris- 
tian motives.  More  can  be  said  with  no  confidence ;  for  the 
best-Christians  have  but  a  mixed  character. 

3.VyVe  shall  find  that  there  is  a  law  of  connection,  afterbirth, 
under  which  power  over  character  is  exerted,  without  any  de- 


OF   THE   FAMILY.  191 

sign  to  do  it.    For  a  considerable  time  after  birth,  the  child 
has  no  capacity  of  will  and  choice  developed,  and  therefore  is 
not  a  subject  of  influence,  in  the  common  sense  of  that  term. 
He  is  not  as  yet  a  complete  individual,  he  has  only  powers  and 
capacities  that  prepare  him  to  be,  when  they  are  unfolded. 
They  are  in  him  only  as  wings  and  a  capacity  to  fly  are  in  the 
egg.    Meantime  he  is  open  to  impressions  from  every  thing 
he  sees.    His  character  is  forming,  under  a  principle,  not  of 
choice,  but  of  nurture. ,  The  spirit  of  the  house  is  breathed  into 
his  nature,  day  by  day.)  The  anger  and  gentleness,  the  fret- 
fulness  and  patience,  the  appetites,  passions  and  manners,  all 
the  variant  moods  of  feeling,  exhibited  round  him,  pass  into 
him  as  impressions  and  become  seeds  of  character  in  him — not 
because  the  parents  will,  but  because  it  must  be  so,  whether 
they  will  or  not.    They  propagate  their  own  evil  in  the  child, 
not  by  design,  but  under  a  law  of  moral  infection.    Before  the 
children  begin  to  gather  wood  for  the  sacrifice,  the  spirit  of  the 
idol  and  his  faith  has  been  communicated.    The  airs  and  feel- 
ings and  conduct  of  idolatry  have  filled  their  nature  with  im- 
pressions, which  are  back  of  ah1  choice  and  memory.    Go  out 
to  them  then,  as  they  are  gathering  faggots  for  the  idol  sacri- 
fice, ask  them  what  questions  they  have  had  about  the  service 
of  the  god;  what  doubts,  whether  any  unsatisfied  debate  or 
perplexing  struggle  has  visited  their  minds,  and  you  will  pro- 
bably awaken  their  first  thoughts  on  the  subject  by  the  inquiry 
itself.    All  because  they  have  grown  up  in  the  idol  worship, 
from  a  point  back  of  memory.    They  received  it  through  their 
impressions,  before  they  were  able  to  receive  it  from  choice. 
And  so  it  is  with  all  the  moral  transactions  of  the  house.    The 
spirit  of  the  house  is  in  the  members  by  nurture,  not  by  teach- 
ing, not  by  any  attempt  to  communicate  the  same,  but  because 
it  is  the  air  the  children  breathe. 

>Now  it  is  in  the  two  fold  manner  set  forth,  under  this  and 
the  previous  head  of  my  discourse,  that  our  race  have  fallen, 


192  THE   ORGANIC   UNITY 

as  a  race,  into  moral  corruption  and  apostasy.  In  these  two 
methods,  the  race  have  been  subjected,  as  an  organic  unity,  to 
evil;  so  that  when  they  come  to  the  age  of  proper  individual- 
ity, the  damage  received  has  prepared  them  to  set  forth,  on  a 
course  of  blamable  and  guilty  transgression.  The  question  of 
original  or  imputed  sin  has  been  much  debated  in  modern  times, 
and  the  effort  has  been  to  vindicate  the  personal  responsibility 
of  each  individual,  as  a  moral  agent.  Nor  is  any  thing  more 
clear,  on  first  principles,  than  that  no  man  is  responsible  for 
any  sin  but  his  own^>rhe  sin  of  no  person  can  be  transmitted, 
as  a  sin,  or  charged  )$o  the  account  of  another.  But  it  does  not 
therefore  follow  that  there  are  no  moral  connections  between 
individuals,  by  which  one  becomes  a  corrupter  of  others^Jlf  we 
are  units,  so  also  are  we  a  race,  and  the  race  is  one — one  fam- 
ily, one  organic  whole ;  such  that  the  fall  of  the  head  involves 
the  fall  of  all  the  members.  Under  the  old  doctrines  of  ori- 
ginal sin,  federal  headship  and  the  like,  cast  away  by  many, 
ridiculed  by  not  a  few,  there  yet  lies  a  great  and  momentous 
truth,  announced  by  reason  as  clearly  as  by  scripture — that  in 
Adam  all  die,  that  by  one  man's  disobedience  many  were  made 
sinners,  that  death  hath  passed  upon  all  men  for  that  all  have 
sinned.  Not  that  this  original  scheme  of  unity  is  any  disad- 
vantage. I  firmly  believe  and  think  I  could  show  the  contrary 
even.  Enough  that  so  the  Scriptures  speak,  and  that  so  we 
see,  by  inspection  itself.  There  can  be  no  greater  credulity, 
than  for  any  man  to  expect  that  a  sinful  and  death-struck 
being,  one  who  has  fallen  out  of  the  harmony  of  his  mold  by 
sin,  should  yet  communicate  no  trace  of  evil  from  himself,  no 
diseased  or  damaged  quality,  no  moral  discolor  to  the  genera- 
tioas  that  derive  their  existence  from  him.  To  make  that  pos- 
sible, every  law  of  physiology  must  be  adjourned  and,  what  is 
more,  all  that  we  see  with  our  eyes,  in  the  eventful  era  of  im- 
pjpessions,  must  be  denied. 
v  I  ani  well  aware  that  those  who  have  advocated,  in  former 


OF   THE   FAMILY.  193 

times,  the  church  dogma  of  original  em,  as  well  as  those  who 
adhere  to  it  now,  speak  only  of  a  taint  derived  by  natural,  or 
physical  propagation,  and  do  not  include  the  taint  derived  after- 
wards, under  the  law  of  family  infection.  It  certainly  can  be 
no  heresy  to  include  the  latter  and,  since  it  is  manifest  that 
both  fall  within  the  same  general  category  of  organic  connec- 
tion, it  is  equally  manifest  that  both  ought  to  be  included  and, 
in  all  systematic  reasonings,  must  be.  If,  during  the  age  of 
impressions  in  the  child,  and  previous  to  the  development  of 
will,  a  power  is  exerted  over  character— exerted  necessarily 
both  as  regards  the  sinful  parent  and  the  child,  and  that  as  truly 
as  if  it  fell  within  the  laws  of  propagation  itself— it  cannot  be 
right  to  attribute  the  moral  taint  wholly,  or  even  principally, 
to  propagation.  Until  the  child  comes  to  his  will,  we  must  re- 
gard him  still  as  held  within  the  matrix  of  the  parental  life,  and 
then,  when  he  is  ripe  for  responsible  choice,  as  born  for  action — 
a  proper  and  complete  person.  Jaking  this  comprehensive 
view  of  the  organic  unity  of  successive  generations  of  men,  the 
truth  we  assert  of  human  depravation  is  not  a  half-truth  exag- 
gerated (which  many  will  not  regard  as  any  truth  at  all)  but 
it  is  a  broad,  well  authenticated  doctrine,  which  no  intelligent 
observer  of  facts  and  principles  can  deny.  It  shows  the  past 
descending  on  the  present,  the  present  on  the  future,  by  an  inev- 
itable law,  and  yet  gives  every  parent  the  hope  of  mitigating 
the  sad  legacy  of  mischief  he  entails  upon  his  children,  by  what- 
ever improvements  of  character  and  conduct  he  is  able  to  make — 
a  hope  which  Christian  promise  so  far  clears  to  his  view,  as 
even  to  allow  him  the  presumption  that  his  child  may  be  set 
forth  into  responsible  action,  as  a  Christian  person. 

In  offering  these  thoughts,  it  will  be  seen  that  I  have  not  di- 
gressed from  my  subject,  but  have  extended  the  proof  of  my 
doctrine  rather,  discovering,  within  its  scope,  the  fall  of  man 
itself.  As  a  farther  proof  of  the  organic  unity  of  the  family,  I 

allege— 

17 


194  THE    ORGANIC   UNITY 

4.  The  fact  that,  in  all  organic  bodies  known  to  us,  states, 
churches,  sects,  armies,  there  is  a  common  spirit,  by  which 
they  are  pervaded  and  distinguished  from  each  other.  And  we 
use  this  word  spirit,  in  such  cases,  to  denote  a  power  interfu- 
sed, a  comprehensive  will  actuating  the  members,  regarding 
also  the  common  body  itself,  as  a  larger  and  more  inclusive 
individual.  How  different,  for  example,  is  the  spirit  of  France, 
from  the  spirit  of  England ;  the  spirit  of  both  from  that  of  the 
United  States;  and  that  from  the  spirit  of  the  Spartan,  or 
Athenian  republic.  This  national  spirit  too  is,  as  it  were,  a 
common  power  in  each,  by  which  the  subordinate,  individual 
members,  are  assimilated  and  made  to  have  a  kind  of  organic 
character.  And  so  much  is  there  in  this,  that  an  Englishman 
cannot  make  to  himself  a  French  character,  or  any  one  of  us  an 
English  character.  We  can  not  act  the  character  one  of  anoth- 
er ;  for  so  distant  are  the  feelings,  prejudices  and  temperaments 
of  each,  that  they  can  not  ever  be  accurately  conceived  and 
reproduced,  unless  we  are  actually  enveloped  in  them  as  an 
atmosphere. 

In  the  same  manner,  there  is  a  peculiar  spirit  in  every 
church.  Whether  you  take  the  larger  divisions,  the  Jewish, 
the  Greek,  the  Roman,  the  Episcopal,  the  Presbyterian,  the 
Baptist,  the  Congregational,  or  descend  to  the  particular 
churches  of  a  given  city,  you  will  find  something  characteristic 
in  each — a  common  power,  which  gives  a  common  stamp  to 
the  members  peculiar  to  themselves.  Or  if  you  visit  a  Quaker 
settlement,  where  a  few  men  and  women  are  gathered  into  a 
kind  of  church  family,  you  will  discover  that  the  members  are 
pervaded,  all,  by  a  peculiar  spirit,  as  distinct  from  the  world 
around  them,  as  if  they  were  a  new  discovered  people.  And 
these  Quaker  settlements  may  be  taken  as  a  kind  of  interme- 
diate link,  between  the  church  state  and  the  family. 

Passing  then  to  families,  you  are  not  surprised  to  discover 
the  same  thing.  This  is  specially  evident,  where  the  family  is 


OF    THE    FAMILY.  195 

isolated  and  does  not  mingle  extensively  with  the  world.  You 
can  scarcely  open  the  door  and  take  a  seat  in  their  house,  least 
of  all  can  you  go  to  their  table,  or  spend  a  night  in  their  hospi- 
tality, without  being  impressed  by  the  fact.  And  this  family 
spirit  will  sometimes  be  exceedingly  opposite  to  the  spirit  of 
goodness.  Here  it  is  money,  money,  written  on  every  face. 
Here  it  is  good  living ;  here  show ;  here  scandal  and  detraction. 
Sometimes  the  sense  of  religion  and  of  spiritual  things  will 
seem  to  be  nearly  lost,  or  obliterated.  Sometimes  a  positive 
hatred  of  God  and  all  good  men  and  principles  will  constitute 
the  staple  of  family  feeling.  Sometimes  a  dull  and  sullen  con- 
te,mpt  of  such  things  will  hold  the  place  of  open  animosity. 

^iow  it  is  true  that  the  family  spirit  does  not  always  perfectly 
master  and  assimilate  all  the  members.  You  will  find  a  Chris- 
tian son,  or  daughter,  here  and  there,  in  spite  of  the  ruling 
spirit  of  the  house.  This,  however,  simply  because  families 
mingle,  in  some  degree,  with  the  world,  falling  thus  under  the 
power  of  another  spirit,  that  masters  the  spirit  reigning  at 
home.  Tjhe  children  go  into  other  families,  where  they  are  vis- 
ited by  other  feelings.  They  go  into  the  church  of  God,  where 
the  church  spirit  breathes  another  atmosphere.  In  the  school, 
they  are  penetrated  by  the  school  spirit.  In  the  shop,  or  in  the 
transactions  of  trade,  the  same  is  true.  Were  it  not  for  this, 
I  doubt  whether  the  family  spirit  would  not,  uniformly,  be 
found  to  rule  the  character  of  all  the  members.  Who  ever  ex- 
pects that  an  idolatrous  religion,  in  the  house,  will  not  uniformly 
produce  idolaters'?  So  the  Mohammedan  spirit  makes  only 
Mohammedans.  In  like  manner,  a  thievish  house  perpetuates 
a  race  of  thieves.  Consider  also  the  ductility  and  the  perfect 
passivity  of  childhood.  Early  childhood  resists  nothing.  What 
is  given  it  receives,  making  no  selection.  To  expect  therefore 
that  a  child  will  form  to  himself  a  spirit  opposite  to  the  spirit  of 
the  family,  without  once  feeling  the  power  of  a  counteractive 
spirit,  would  be,  in  the  highest  degree,  unreasonable.  Doubt- 


196  THE    ORGANIC    UNITY 

less  he  has  a  conscience,  which  is  the  law  of  God  in  his  breast, 
and  he  has  a  will  free  to  choose  what  his  conscience  requires. 
But  his  passions  are  unfolded  before  his  discretion,  his  prejudi- 
ces bent  before  he  assumes  the  function  of  self-government. 
He  breathes  the  atmosphere  of  the  house.  He  sees  the  world 
through  his  parents'  eyes.  Their  objects  become  his.  Their 
life  and  spirit  mold  him.  If  they  are  carnal,  coarse,  passionate, 
profane,  sensual,  devilish,  his  little  plastic  nature  takes  the 
poison  of  course.  Their  very  motions,  manners  and  voices, 
will  be  distinguishable  in  him.  He  lives  and  moves  and  has  his 
being  in  them. 

I  do  not  say,  of  course,  that  he  will  exactly  resemble  them  in 
character.  Were  he  to  receive  a  contagious  disease,  he  would, 
doubtless,  be  differently  handled  under  it,  from  the  person  who 
gave  the  infection.  I  only  say  that  the  moral  disease  of  the 
family  he  assuredly  will  take,  and  that  probably,  without  ever 
a  question,  or  a  cautious  feeling  started.  If  some  other  spirit, 
from  other  families,  or  the  church,  or  the  world,  do  not  reach 
him,  the  organic  spirit  of  the  house  will  infallibly  shape  and 
subordinate  his  character. 

5.  We  are  led  to  the  same  conclusion,  by  considering  what 
may  be  called  the  organic  working  of  a  family.  The  child  be- 
gins, at  length,  to  develop  his  character,  in  and  through  his 
voluntary  power.  But  he  is  still  under  the  authority  of  the 
parent,  and  has  only  a  partial  control  of  himself,  in  the  exten- 
sion of  which,  he  is  gradually  approaching  a  complete  person- 
ality. Now  there  is  a  perpetual  working  in  the  family,  by 
which  the  wills  both  of  the  parents  and  the  children  are  held  in 
exercise,  and  which,  without  any  design  to  affect  character  on 
one  side,  or  conscious  consent  on  the  other,  is  yet  fashioning 
results  of  a  moral  quality,  as  it  were,  by  the  joint  industry  of 
the  house.  And  these  results  are  to  be  taken,  according  to  our 
definition,  as  included  in  the  organic  unity  of  the  family.  I  ex- 
cept, of  course,  all  the  voluntary  actings  that  are  designed  to 


OF    THE    FAMILY.  197 

influence  the  child  and  are  yielded  to  by  him,  as  consciously 
good  or  wrong. 

The  truth  here  brought  to  view  is  graphically  set  forth  in 
my  text.  Whatever  working  there  is  in  the  house,  all  work 
together.  If  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire,  and  the  women  knead 
the  cakes,  the  children  will  gather  the  wood,  and  the  idol  wor- 
ship will  set  the  whole  circle  of  the  house  in  action.  The  child 
being  under  the  law  of  the  parents,  they  will  keep  him  at  work 
to  execute  their  plans,  or  their  sins,  as  the  case  may  be ;  and, 
as  they  will  seldom  think  of  what  they  do,  or  require,  so  he  will 
seldom  have  any  scruple  concerning  it.  The  property  gained 
belongs  to  the  family.  They  have  a  common  interest  and  every; 
prejudice,  or  animosity,  felt  by  the  parents,  the  children  are 
sure  to  feel  even  more  intensely.  They  are  all  locked  together, 
in  one  cause — in  common  cares,  hopes,  offices  and  duties ;  for 
their  honor  and  dishonor,  their  sustenance,  their  ambition,  all 
their  objects  are  common.  So  they  are  trained  of  necessity  to 
a  kind  of  general  working,  or  co-operation,  and,  like  stones 
rolled  together  in  some  brook  or  eddy,  they  wear  each  other 
into  common  shapes.  If  the  family  subsist  by  plunder,  then  the 
infant  is  swaddled  as  a  thief,  the  child  wears  a  thief's  garments 
and  feeds  the  growth  of  his  body  on  stolen  meat ;  and,  in  due 
time,  he  will  have  the  trade  upon  him,  without  ever  knowing 
that  he  has  taken  it  up,  or  when  he  took  it  up.  If  the  father  is 
intemperate,  the  children  must  go  on  errands  to  procure  his 
supplies,  lose  the  shame  that  might  be  their  safety,  be  immersed 
in  the  fumes  of  liquor  in  going  and  coming,  and  why  not  re- 
warded by  an  occasional  taste  of  what  is  so  essential  to  the 
enjoyment  of  life?  If  the  family  subsist  in  idleness  and  begga- 
ry, then  the  children  will  be  trained  to  lie  skillfully  and  mam- 
tain  their  false  pretences  with  a  plausible  effrontery— all  this, 
you  will  observe,  not  as  a  sin,  but  as  a  trade. 

Nor  does  what  I  am  saying  hold,  only  in  cases  of  extreme 
viciousness  and  depravity.  Whatever  fire  the  fathers  kindle, 
17* 


198  THE    ORGANIC    UNITY 

the  children  are  always  found  gathering  the  wood — always 
helping  as  accessaries  and  apprentices.  If  the  father  reads  a 
news  paper,  or  a  sporting  gazette  on  Sunday,  the  family  must 
help  him  find  it.  If  he  writes  a  letter  of  business  on  Sunday, 
he  will  send  his  child  to  the  office  with  the  letter.  If  the  mother 
is  a  scandal  monger,  she  will  make  her  children  spies  and  eaves- 
droppers. If  she  sends  word  to  her  servant  to  say,  at  the  door, 
that  she  is  not  at  home,  she  will  sometimes  send  it  by  her  child. 
If  she  is  ambitious  that  her  children  should  excel  in  a  display 
of  finery  and  fashion,  they  must  wear  the  show  and  grow  up  in 
the  spirit  of  it.  If  her  house  is  a  den  of  disorder  and  filth,  they 
must  be  at  home  in  it.  Fretfulness  and  ill  temper  in  the  parents 
are  provocations  and,  therefore,  somewhat  more  efficacious 
than  commandments  to  the  same.  The  proper  result  will  be  a 
congenial  assemblage,  in  the  house,  of  petulance  and  ill  nature. 
The  niggardly  parsimony,  that  quarrels  with  a  child,  when  ask- 
ing for  a  book  needful  for  his  proficiency  at  school,  is  teaching 
him  that  money  is  worth  more  than  knowledge.  If  the  parents 
are  late  risers:  the  children  must  not  disturb  the  house,  but  stay 
quiet  and  take  a  lesson,  that  is  to  assist  their  energy  and  prompt- 
ness, in  the  future  business  of  life.  If  they  go  to  church  only 
half  of  the  day,  they  will  not  send  their  children  the  other  half. 
If  they  never  read  the  bible,  they  will  never  teach  it.  If  they 
laugh  at  religion,  they  will  put  a  face  upon  it,  which  will  make 
their  children  justify  the  contempt  they  express.  This  enu- 
meration might  be  indefinitely  extended.  Enough  that  we  see, 
in  the  working  of  the  house,  how  all  the  members  work  togeth- 
er. The  children  fall  into  their  places  naturally,  as  it  were,  and 
unconsciously,  to  do  and  to  suffer  exactly  what  the  general 
scheme  of  the  house  requires.  Without  any  design  to  that 
effect,  all  the  actings  of  business,  pleasure  and  sin,  propagate 
themselves  throughout  the  circle,  as  the  weights  of  a  clock 
maintain  the  working  of  the  wheels.  Where  there  is  no  effort 


OF    THE    FAMILY.  (99 

to  teach  wrong  or  thought  of  it,  the  house  is  yet  a  school  of 
wrong,  and  the  life  of  the  house  is  only  a  practical  drill  in  evil. 

Having  sufficiently  established,  as  I  think,  by  these  illustra- 
tions, the  organic  unity  of  families,  it  remains  to  add  some  prac- 
tical thoughts  ofa  more  specific  nature.  And — 

1.  It  becomes  a  question  of  great  moment,  as  connected  with 
the  doctrine  established,  whether  it  is  the  design  of  the  Chris- 
tian scheme  to  take  possession  of  the  organic  laws  oi'the  fam- 
ily and  wield  them  as  instruments,  in  any  sense,  of  a  regener- 
ative character  ?  And  here  we  are  met  by  the  broad  principle, 
that  Christianity  endeavors  to  make  evejy  object,  favor  and 
relation  aflrtnstrument  of  righteousness,  according  to  its  original 
design.  Vj^hat  intelligent  person  ever  supposed  that  this 
original  constitution,  by  which  one  generation  derives  its  exist- 
ence and  receives  the  bent  of  its  character  from  another,  was 
designed  of  God  to  be  the  vehicle  only  of  depravity  ?  4t  might 
as  well  be  supposed  that  men  themselves  were  made  to  be 
containers  of  depravity !  The  only  supposition  that  honors 
God  is  that  the  organic  utlfty  of  which  I  speak,  was  ordained 
originally  for  the  nurture  of  holy  virtue  in  the  beginning  of  each 
soul's  history  ;  and  that  Christianity,  or  redemption,  must  of 
necessity  take  possession,  of  the  abused  vehicle  and  sanctify  it 
for  its  own  merciful  uses.j  That  an  engine  of  so  great  power 
should  be  passed  by,  when  every  other  law  and  object  in  the 
universe  is  appropriated  and  wielded  as  an  instrument  of  grace, 
and  that  in  a  movement  for  the  redemption  of  the  race,  is  in- 
conceivable. The  conclusion  thus  reached  does  not  carry  us, 
indeed,  to  the  certain  inference  that  the  organic  unity  of  the 
family  will  avail  to  set  forth  every  child  of  Christian  parents, 
in  a  Christian  life.  But  if  we  consider  the  tremendous  power 
it  has  as  an  instrument  of  evil,  how  far  short  of  such  an  opin- 
ion does  it  leave  us,  when  computing  the  reach  of  its  power  as 
an  instrument  of  grace? 


200  THE   ORGANIC   UNITY 

Passing  next  to  the  scriptures,  we  find  our  reasonings  jus- 
tified, as  explicitly  as  we  can  desire.  I  am  not  disposed  to 
press  the  language  of  scripture,  which  is"  popular,  to  extreme 
conclusions.  But  I  observe  that  Christ  is  called  a  second  Adam 
and  a  last  Adam,  language,  to  say  the  least,  that  suits  the  idea 
of  a  proposed  union  with  the  race,  under  its  organic  laws — as 
if,  entering  into  the  Christian  family,  his  design  were  to  fill  it 
with  a  new  family  spirit,  which  shall  controvert  and  master  the 
old  evil  spirit.  The  declaration  corresponds  that — as  by  one 
man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedi- 
ence of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous — language  that 
measures  the  grace  by  the  mischief,  and  shows  it  flowing  in  a 
parallel,  but  fuller  stream.  It  may  not.  be  easy  to  settle,  beyond 
dispute,  the  relation  of  the  old  covenant  to  the  new ;  but  there 
can  be  no  question  that  the  church,  under  Abraham,  was  meas- 
ured, in  some  sense,  by  the  organic  unity  of  the  family  of  Abra- 
Jham.  The  covenant  was  a  family  covenant,  in  which  God 
engaged  to  be  the  God  of  the  seed,  as  of  the  father.  And  the 
feeal  of  the  covenant  was  a  seal  of  faith,  applied  to  the  whole 
house,  as  if  the  continuity  of  faith  were  somehow  to  be,  or  some" 
how  might  be  maintained,  in  a  line  that  is  parallel  with  the 
continuity  of  sin,  in  the  family.  Nor  was  the  result  to  depend 
on  mere  natural  generation,  however  sanctified,  but  on  the 
organic  causes  also,  that  are  involved  in  family  nurture,  after 
birth.  For  we  are  expressly  informed,  Gen.  xviii.  19,  that  God 
rested  his  covenant,  or  engagement  on  the  conduct  of  Abra- 
ham— "  for  I  know  him,  that  he  will  command  his  children  and 
his  household  after  him,  and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the 
Lord,  to  do  justice  and  judgment,  that  the  Lord  may  bring 
upon  Abraham  that  which  he  hath  spoken  of  him."  And  thus 
we  see  that  the  old  church,  beyond  any  possible  question,  was 
to  have  its  line  of  perpetuity,  in  and  by  the  same  laws  of  organic 
unity,  which  sin  has  made  the  vehicle  of  depravity.  Descend- 
ing then  to  the  New  Testament,  under  Jesus  the  Redeemer, 
he  is  declared  to  have  suffered— "  that  the  blessing  of  Abra- 


OF    THE    FAMILY.  201 

ham  might  come  on  the  Gentiles.''  The  Gentiles  are  said  to 
be  "graffed  in."  The  new  "  seed,"  viz.  "  Christ,"  are  said  to 
be  the  seed  of  Abraham  and  "  heirs  of  the  promise"  made  to 
him.  The  old  rite  of  proselyte  baptism,  which  made  the  fami- 
lies receiving  it  Jewish  citizens  and  children  of  Abraham,  was 
applied  over  directly  to  the  Christian  disciples — the  rite  went 
by  "households."  The  new  promise  was  declared  to  be — "  to 
you  and  to  your  children."  Even  the  old  Jewish  law  that  one 
Jewish  parent  made  a  Jewish  child,  is  brought  into  the  church, 
and  one  believing  parent ' '  sanctifies"  the  child.  In  all  of  which, 
it  seems  to  be  clearly  held  that  grace  shall  travel  by  the  same 
conveyance  with  sin,  that  the  organic  unity,  which  I  have 
spoken  of  chiefly  as  an  instrument  of  corruption,  is  to  be  occu- 
pied and  sanctified  by  Christ  and  become  an  instrument  also  of 
mercy  and  life.  And  thence  it  follows  that  the  seal  of  faith,  ap- 
plied to  households,  is  to  be  no  absurdity ;  for  it  is  the  privilege 
and  duty  of  every  Christian  parent  that  his  children  shall  come 
forth  into  responsible  action,  as  a  regenerated  stock.  The 
organic  unity  is  to  be  a  power  of  life.  God  engages,  on  his 
part,  that  it  may  be,  and  calls  the  Christian  parent  to  promise, 
on  his  part,  that  it  shall  be.  Thus  the  church  has  a  constitu- 
tive elemenHrom  the  family  in  it  still,  as  it  had  in  the  days  of 
Abraham.  iThe  church  life,  that  is  the  life  of  Christ,  collects 
families  into  a  common  organism,  and  then,  by  sanctifying  the 
laws  of  organic  unity  in  families,  extends  its  quickening  power 
to  the  generation  following,  so  as  to  include  the  future  and 
make  it  one  with  the  past.  \  And  so  the  church,  in  all  ages,  be- 
comes a  body  under  Christ  the  head,  as  the  race  is  a  body  un- 
der Adam  the  head — a  living  body  quickened  by  him  who  hath 
life  in  himself,  fitly  joined  together  and  compacted  by  that 
which  every  joint  supplieth. 

2.  The  theological  importance  of  our  doctrine  of  organic 
unity,  when  brought  up  to  this  point,  is  exhibited  in  many 
ways,  and  especially  in  the  fact  that  it  gives  the  only  true  solu> 


202  THE   ORGANIC    UNITY 

tion  of  the  Christian  church  and  of  baptism  as  related  to  mem- 
bership.   I  hardly  dare  attempt  to  speak  of  the  "  sacramental 
grace,"  supposed  to  attend   the   rite  of  baptism,    under  the 
priestly  forms  of  Christianity ;  for  I  have  never  been  able  to 
give  any  consistent  and  dignified  meaning  to  the  language,  in 
which  it  is  set  forth.    That  there  is  a  grace  attendant,  falling 
on  all  the  parties  concerned,  is  quite  evident,  if  they  are  doing 
their  duty  ;  for  no  person,  whether  laic  or  priest,  can  do,  or  in- 
tend what  is  right,  without  some  spiritual  benefit.    But  the  child 
is  said  to  be  '  regenerate,  spiritually  united  to  Christ,  a  new 
creature  in  Christ  Jesus,'  under  the  official  grace  of  baptism. 
Then  this  language,  so  full  of  import,  is  defined,  after  all,  to 
mean  only  that  the  child  is  in  the  church,  where  the  grace  of 
God  surrounds  him — translated,  (not  internally  but  externally,) 
from  the  sphere  of  nature  into  a  new  sphere,  where  all  the  aids 
of  grace,  available  for  his  salvation,  are  furnished.    Sometimes 
it  is  added  that  his  sins  are  remitted,  though  no  reasonable  man 
believes  that  he  has  any  sins  to  remit;  or,  if  the  meaning  be 
that  the  corrupted  quality,  physiologically  inherent  in  his  na- 
ture, is  washed  away,  he  will  show  in  due  time  that  it  is  not ; 
and  no  one  in  fact  believes  that  it  is.    Then  if  it  be  asked 
whether  the  new  sphere  of  grace  will  assuredly  work  a  gra- 
cious character?  no,  is  the  answer.    If  the  child  is  not  faithful, 
or  hinders  the  grace  he  will  lose  it — that  is  he  will  not  stay  -re- 
generate.   And   then  as  the  child,  in  every  case,  is  sure,  in 
some  bad  sense,  not  to  be  faithful,  he  is  equally  sure  to  lose  the 
grace  and  be  landed  in  a  second  state  that  is  worse  than  the 
first.    And  thus  it  turns  out,  after  all,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  that 
the  grace  magnified  in  the  beginning,  by  words  of  so  high  an 
import,  is  a  thing  of  no  value — it  is  nothing.     It  is,  in  fact,  one 
of  our  most  decided  objections  to  this  scheme  of  sacramental 
grace,  (paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,)  that,  really  and  truly, 
there  is  not  enough  of  import  left  to  save  the  meaning  of  the 
rite.    The  grace  is  words  only,  and  an  air  of  imposture,  (I 


OF    THE   FAMILY.  203 

speak  constructively,)  is  all  that  remains.  The  rite  is  fertile 
only  in  maintaining  a  superstition.  Practically  speaking,  it  only 
exalts  a  prerogative.  By  a  motion  of  his  hand,  the  priest 
breaks  in,  to  interrupt  and  displace  all  the  laws  of  character  in 
life — communicating  an  abrupt,  ictic  grace,  as  much  wider  of 
all  dignity  and  reason,  than  any  which  the  new  light  theology 
has  asserted,  as  the  regenerative  power  is  more  subject  to  a 
human  dispensation.  A  superstitious  homage  collects  about 
his  person.  The  child  looks  on  him  as  one  who  opens  heaven 
by  a  ceremony !  The  ungodly  parent  hurries  to  him,  to  get  the 
regenerative  grace  for  his  dying  child.  The  bereaved  parent 
mourns  inconsolably,  and  even  curses  himself  that  he  neglect- 
ed to  obtain  the  grace  for  his  child,  now  departed.  The  priest 
in  the  eye  displaces  the  memory  of  duty  and  godliness  in  the 
heart.  A  thousand  superstitions,  degrading  to  religion  and 
painful  to  look  upon,  hang  around  this  view  of  baptism.  Not  to 
produce  them  the  doctrine  must  yield  up  its  own  nature. 

In  all  this,  I  speak  constructively,  as  reasoning  from  the  doc- 
trine asserted,  and  as  I  am  able  to  understand  it.  Constructive 
results  are  never  more  than  partially  verified  by  historic  facts ; 
for  great  truths,  blended  with  the  error,  qualify  and  mitigate 
its  effects. 

Let  us  see  now,  whether,  taking  our  stand  before  the  doc- 
trine asserted  in  this  discourse,  we  can  discover  a  real  and 
proper  ground  for  infant  baptism.  To  open  the  path,  observe 
that  the  church  of  God  is  not  gathered,  or  organized  by  baptism. 
Baptism  simply  indicates,  or  manifests  a  membership  already 
existing.  Therefore,  in  adults,  it  follows  belief.  It  is  the  seal 
of  a  faith  which  Abraham  had,  being  yet  uncircumcised.  The 
church  of  God  is  not  a  mechanical  but  a  vital  creature.  It  is 
organized  by  spiritual  life  and  cannot,  as  a  vital  creature,  be 
organized  by  any  thing  else.  But  spiritual  life  is,  in  itself,  invisi- 
ible,  and  the  next  problem  is  to  make  the  organism,  quickened 
thereby,  a  visible  organism.  This  will  be  effected,  to  a  certain 


204  THE    OR.GANIO    UNITY 

degree,  naturally,  by  a  manifestation  of  its  power  in  Christian 
fruits.  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.  Every  man  who 
bears  the  Christian  fruits  is  seen  to  be  in  the  visible  church  of 
God — priests,  covenants,  sacraments,  all  out  of  the  question. 
Though  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  any  one  should  reject 
God's  ordinances,  for  a  length  of  time,  without  reflecting  some 
suspicion  of  obliquity  by  such  a  fruit.  But  to  end  all  debate 
and  suspicion,  and  comJbrt  the  church  visible  by  some  definite 
rule  of  measurement,  God  appoints  a  formal  badge  of  visibil- 
ity, viz.  baptism,  constituting,  thus,  a  formal  visible  church. 
To  illustrate  by  a  civil  analogy,  we  are  all  American  citizens, 
but  the  elector's  oath  is  a  formal  badge  of  citizenship,  appoint- 
ed by  the  laws.  And  these  electors  are,  in  a  certain  sense,  the 
nation,  though  not  more  really  citizens  than  before.  'Jn  a  like 
sense,  baptized  persons  constitute  the  church ;  inasmuch  as 
they  stand  forth  to  represent,  by  a  formal  embodiment,  the 
Christian  spirit,  or  spiritual  lifej.  Still  they  were  in  the  church 
before,  in  virtue  of  spiritual  life.  And  so  others  are  in  it  now, 
e.  g.  the  Quakers,  who  are  not  baptized — united  to  the  head 
and  showing  that  union  by  their  fruits. 

But  where  now  is  the  faith,  the  spiritual  life,  presupposed  in 
baptism,  when  a  child  is  the  subject?  It  is  in  the  parent,  I  an- 
swer, as  the  head  of  an  organic  unity  in  the  house.  ^Or,  as  it 
may  better  suit  the  Episcopal  habit  of  thought,  it  is  in  the 
church  of  God,  the  body  of  Christ,  considered  as  inhabited  and 
quickened  by  his  Spirit — which  quickening  Spirit,  as  was  just 
now  showed  under  my  last  head,  organizing  the  whole  body, 
travels  through  the  parent,  and  mainly  through  him  reaches 
the  child.  The  child  therefore  is  in  the  church,  in  virtue  of  the 
church  life,  as  our  Episcopal  brethren  require,  for  the  church 
life  is  but  another  name  for  the  life  of  God  which  organizes  the 
church,  and  sets  the  past  in  connexion  with  the  future,  through 
the  organic  laws  of  the  family.'  Next  he  is  in  the  formal  visible 
church  through  baptism,  the  rite  by  which  a  formal  embodi- 


OP    THE    FAMILY.  205 

^\ 

ment  of  the  church  is  made.  -The  church  meantime  has  not 
superseded  the  family.  The  child  is  still  within  the  known  laws 
of  character  in  the  house,  to  receive,  under  these,  whatever 
good  may  have  reached  him — not  snatched  away  by  an  abrupt, 
fantastical  and  therefore  incredible  grace.  lUe  is  taken  to  be 
regenerate,  not  historically  speaking,  but  presumptively,  on  the 
ground  of  his  known  connexion  with  the  parent  character  and 
the  divine,  or  church  life,  which  is  the  life  of  that  character. 
Perhaps  I  shall  be  understood  more  easily,  if  I  say  that  the  child 
is  potentially  regenerateTpeing  regarded  as  existing  in  con- 
nexion with  powers  and  "causes  that  contain  the  fact,  before 
time  and  separate  from  time.  For  when  the  fact  appears  his- 
torically, under  the  law  of  time,  it  is  not  more  truly  real,  in  a 
certain  sense,  than  it  was  before.  And  then  the  grace  confer- 
red, being  conferred  by  no  casual  act,  but  resting  in  the  estab- 
lished laws  of  character,  in  the  church  and  the  house,  is  not  lost 
by  unfaithfulness,  but  remains  and  lingers  still,  though  abused 
and  weakened,  to  encourage  new  struggles. 

Should  it  not  be  some  comfort  also  that  we  can  find  a  view 
of  the  church,  which,  under  all  names  and  varieties,  saves  its 
unity — a  view  which  excuses  the  necessity  of  odious  exclusions 
and  offensive  assumptions,  which  makes  us  brothers  still  and, 
as  we  hold  the  head,  unites  us  evermore  in  the  bonds  of  a  broth- 
erly feeling.  What  heart  retaining  even  a  trace  of  Christian 
magnanimity,  what  heart  not  pinched,  by  bigotry,  to  a  narrow- 
ness that  even  scants  the  magnanimity  of  nature,  will  not  be 
disposed  to  accept  results  of  a  character  so  truly  Catholic  ? 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  organic  unity  I  have 
been  asserting,  proves  its  theologic  value,  as  an  adequate  solvent 
for  all  the  difficulties  of  this  very  difficult  subject.  Only  one  dif- 
ficulty remains,  viz.  that  so  few  can  believe  the  doctrine. 

2.  It  is  evident  that  the  voluntary  intention  of  parents,  in  re- 
gard to  their  children,  is  no  measure,  either  of  their  merit,  or 
their  sin.    Few  parents  are  so  base,  or  so  lost  to  natural  affec- 
18 


206  THE    ORGANIC    UNITY 

tion,  ae  really  to  intend  the  injury  of  their  children.  However 
irreligious,  or  immoral,  they  more  commonly  desire  a  worthy 
and  correct  character  for  their  children,  often  even  a  Christian 
character.  But,  injhe  great  and  momentous  truth  now  set 
forth,  you  perceive  it  is  not  what  you  intend  forvour  children,  so 
much  as  what  you  are.  that  is  to  have  its  effect.!  They  are  con- 
nected, by  an  organic  unity,  not  with  your  instructions,  but  with 
your  life.  And  your  life  is  more  powerful  than  your  instructions 
can  be.  They  might  be  jealous  of  intended  corruption  and 
withstand  it,  but  the  spirit  of  the  house,  which  is  your  spirit, 
the  whole  working  of  the  house,  which  is  actuated  by  you,  is 
what  no  exercise  of  will,  even  if  they  had  more  of  it  than  they 
have,  could  well  resist.  Therefore,  what  you  are  they  will 
almost  necessarily  be,  and  then,  as  you  are  responsible  for  what 
you  are,  you  must  also  be  responsible  for  the  ruin  brought  on 
them.  And,  if  you  desired  better  things  for  them,  as  you  prob- 
ably say,  the  more  guilty  are  you  that,  knowing  and  desiring 
better  things,  you  thwarted  your  desires  by  your  own  evil 
life. 

So  there  are  Christians,  who  intend  and  do  many  things  for 
their  children,  arid  thus  acquit  themselves  of  all  blame  in  re- 
gard to  their  character.  Here,  alas !  is  the  perpetual  error  of 
Christian  parents,  so  called,  that  they  endeavor  to  make  up,  by 
direct  efforts,  for  the  mischiefs  of  a  loose  and  neglectful  life. 
They  convince  themselves  that  teaching,  lecturing,  watch,  dis- 
cipline, things  done  with  a  purpose  are  the  sum  of  duty.  As 
if  mere  affectations  and  will- works  could  cheat  the  laws  of  life 
and  character  ordained  by  God  !  Your  character  is  a  stream, 
a  river,  flowing  down  upon  your  children,  hour  by  hour.  What 
you  dt>  here  and  there  to  carry  an  opposing  influence  is,  at  best, 
only  a  ripple  that  you  make  on  the  surface  of  the  stream.  It 
reveals  the  sweep  of  the  current,  nothing  more.  If  you  expect 
your  children  to  go  with  the  ripple,  instead  of  the  stream,  you 
will  be  disappointed.  I  beseech  you  then,  as  you  love  your  chil- 


OP   THE    FAMILY. 

dren,  to  admit  other  and  worthier  thoughts,  thoughts  more  safe 
for  them  and  certainly  for  you.  Understand  that  it  is  the  family 
spirit,  the  organic  life  of  the  house,  that  which  works  by  an 
unconscious,  unseen  power,  and  perpetually — the  silent  power 
of  a  domestic  godliness — this  it  is  which  forms  your  children  to 
God.  And  if  this  be  wanting,  all  that  you  may  do  beside,  will 
be  as  likely  to  annoy  and  harden  as  to  bless. 

3.  It  seems  to  be  a  proper  inference  from  the  doctrine  I  have 
exhibited,  that  Christian  parents  ought  to  speak  freely  to  their 
children,  at  times,  of  their  own  faults  and  infirmities.  If  they 
are  faithful,  if  they  live  as  Christians,  if  the  spirit  of  Christ 
bears  rule  in  the  house,  they  will  yet  have  faults  and  they  ought 
to  make  no  secret  of  the  1'act.  The  impression  should  be  made, 
that  they  themselves  are  struggling  with  infirmities ;  that  they 
are  humbled  under  a  sense  of  these  infirmities ;  that  there  is 
much  in  them  for  God  to  pardon,  much  for  their  children  to 
overlook,  or  even  to  forgive ;  and  that  God  alone  can  assist 
them  to  lead  themselves  and  their  family  up  to  a  better  world. 
Instead  of  lecturing  their  children,  always,  on  their  peccadillos 
and  sins,  it  would  be  better,  sometimes,  to  give  a  lecture  on 
their  own.  This  if  rightly  done,  would  attract  the  friendly  sym- 
pathy of  their  children,  guard  them  against  the  injurious  im- 
pressions they  make  when  they  trip  themselves,  and  unite  the 
whole  family  in  a  common  struggle  heavenward.  There  is  no 
other  way  to  correct  the  mixture  of  evil  you  will  blend  with  the 
family  spirit,  but  to  deplore  it  and  make  it  an  acknowledged 
truth,  that  you,  too,  are  only  a  child  in  goodness.  But  if  you 
take  a  throne  of  papal  infallibility,  in  your  family,  and  endeavor 
to  fight  out,  with  the  rod,  what  you  fail  in  by  your  misconduct, 
you  may  make  your  children  fear  you  and  hate  you,  but  you 
will  not  win  them  to  Christ.  Alas !  there  are  too  many  Chris- 
tian families,  that  are  only  little  popedoms.  The  very  rule  is 
tyranny — infallibility  assumed,  then  maintained,  by  the  holy 
inquisition  of  terror  and  penal  chastisement!  God  will  not 
smile  on  such  a  kind  of  discipline. 


208  THE   ORGANIC    UNITY 

4.  It  is  evident  what  rule  should  regulate  in  the  society  and 
external  intercourse  of  children.  It  is  a  very  great  mercy,  as 
I  have  said,  that  the  children  of  a  bad  or  irreligious  family  are 
sometimes  permitted  to  be  inmates  elsewhere ;  to  go  into  vir- 
tuous and  Christian  families,  where  a  better  spirit  reigns. 
There  they  see,  perhaps,  the  genuine  demonstrations  of  order, 
of  purity  and  of  good  affections  ;  they  hear  the  voice  of  prayer, 
they  come  where  the  spirit  of  heaven  breathes.  It  is  a  new 
world,  and  they  are  filled  with  new  impressions.  So  if  a  child 
may  go  to  a  school  where  order,  right  principle,  virtuous  man- 
ners and  the  love  of  knowledge  reign,  and  find  a  respite  there 
from  the  shiftlessness,  vice  and  brutality  at  home,  how  great  is 
the  privilege !  In  this  view,  a  good  school  is  almost  the  only 
mercy  that  can  be  extended  to  the  hapless  sons  and  daughters 
of  vice.  Their  good — most  dismal  thought ! — is  to  be  delivered 
from  their  home — to  escape  the  spirit  of  hell  that  encompasses 
their  helpless  age,  and  feel,  though  it  be  but  a  few  hours  a  day, 
the  power  of  another  spirit ! 

But  I  was  speaking  of  the  rule  to  be  observed  in  the  society 
of  children.  Let  every  Christian  beware  how  he  makes  his 
children  inmates  in  an  irreligious  family.  It  will  do,  sometimes, 
to  allow  the  children  of  an  irreligious  family  to  be  inmates,  tem- 
porarily,  in  your  own.  You  may  do  it  for  their  advantage,  and 
if  you  can  enlist  the  hearts  of  your  children  in  the  merciful  in- 
tentions you  cherish,  it  may  even  be  a  good  exercise  for  them. 
But  it  is  a  very  different  thing  to  place  your  children  within  the 
atmosphere  of  another  house.  Send  them  not  where  the  spirit 
of  evil  reigns.  Understand  how  plastic  their  nature  is,  how 
easily  it  receives  the  contagion  of  another  spirit.  You  your- 
selves may  have  intercourse  with  ungodly  persons,  it  may  be 
your  duty  to  seek  it  for  their  benefit.  But  you  may  well  be 
cautious,  how  far  you  subject  your  children,  especially  in  early 
years,  to  the  intercourse  of  irreligious  families. 
And  what  shall  I  say  to  parents,  who  are  themselves  irreli- 


OF    THE    FAMILY.  209 

gious  ?  Perhaps  you  make  it  your  boast  that  you  give  your 
children  their  liberty,  that  you  mean  to  allow  them  to  be  just  as 
religious  as  they  please.  And  is  that  enough,  do  you  think,  to 
discharge  your  duties  to  them  ?  Is  it  enough  to  breathe  the 
spirit  of  evil  and  sin  into  them  and  around  them  every  hour,  to 
give  them  no  Christian  counsel,  to  train  them  up  in  a  prayer- 
less  house,  drill  them  into  conformity  with  all  your  worldly 
ways,  and  then  say  that  you  allow  them  full  liberty  to  be  Chris- 
tians ?  Having  them  under  your  law,  determining  yourselves 
that  organic  spirit,  which  is  to  be  the  element,  the  very  breath 
of  their  moral  existence,  will  you  then  boast  that  you  mean  to 
allow  them  to  be  as  virtuous  as  they  please  ?  Ah,  if  there  be 
any  argument,  which  might  compel  you  to  be  Christians  your- 
selves, it  is  these  arguments  of  affection,  that  God  has  given 
you.  But  if  you  will  not  be  Christians  yourselves,  then,  at 
least,  show  your  children  some  degree  of  mercy,  by  delivering 
them,  as  much  as  possible,  from  yourselves !  Send  them,  as 
often  as  you  may,  where  a  better  spirit  reigns.  Make  them  in- 
mates with  Christian  families,  as  you  have  opportunity.  Let 
them  go  where  they  will  hear  a  prayer,  and  see  a  Christian 
Sabbath.  Send  them,  or  take  them  with  you,  to  the  church  of 
God.  and  the  sabbath  school.  Give  them  a  respite  often  from 
the  family  spirit  and  the  organic  law  of  the  house.  If  you 
yourselves  will  not  fashion  them  for  the  skies,  let  others,  more 
faithful  than  you,  and  more  merciful,  do  it  for  you. 


18* 


THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST,  AND  A  CHRISTIAN  PARISH, 


ACTS  2  :  44-47.  And  all  that  believed  were  together,  and  had  all  things  com- 
mon ;  and  sold  their  possessions  and  goods,  and  parted  them  to  all  men,  as  every 
man  had  need.  And  they,  continuing  daily  with  one  accord  in  the  temple,  and 
breaking  bread  from  house  to  house,  did  eat  their  meat  with  gladness  and  single- 
ness of  heart,  praising  God,  and  having  favor  with  all  the  people.  And  the  Lord 
added  to  the  church  daily  such  as  should  be  saved. 

THIS  whole  passage  is  remarkable,  as  being  an  external  de- 
scription of  the  first  disciples.  It  describes  them,  not  by  their 
inward  experiences,  or  spiritual  exercises,  but  by  their  outward 
demonstrations.  It  exhibits  the  first  spring  time  and  the  first 
blossoms  of  love.  The  beauty  of  the  scene  consists  in  the  fact, 
that  the  disciples  hardly  know,  as  yet,  what  their  love  signifies. 
Assembled  as  pilgrims,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  the  Chris- 
tian love  has  fallen  upon  them,  and  they  find,  what  is  altogether 
new  and  strange,  that  rich  and  poor,  honorable  and  base, 
despite  of  all  distinctions,  they  love  one  another  as  brethren! 
Not  knowing  what  to  make  of  it,  or  apparently,  whether  they 
are  hereafter  to  have  any  thing  to  do  but  to  love  one  another, 
they  give  themselves  wholly  up  to  love,  as  children  to  a  play- 
come  what  will,  they  are  all  agreed  in  this,  that  they  want  only 
fellowship  with  each  other,  fellowship  in  doctrine,  fellowship  in 
praise,  fellowship  in  bread  and  why  not  also  in  goods  ? 

How  sad !  many  will  exclaim,  that  a  scene  so  amiable  and 
lovely  could  not  continue,  and  that  all  Christian  disciples,  to 
the  end  of  the  world,  could  not  fall  into  the  same  delighful 


212      THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

picture,  in  their  conduct !  Just  as  sad,  I  answer,  as  it  is  that 
children  cannot  always  be  children;  for  these  are  the  children 
of'love,  acting  out  the  simple  instinct  of  love,  and  wholly  igno- 
rant, as  yet,  of  the  the  cares,  labors  and  confused  struggles,  in 
which  their  Christian  spirit  is  to  have  its  trial.  Doubtless  we 
are  to  regret,  as  a  loss,  whatever  departure  we  may  have  suf- 
fered from  the  spirit  of  these  first  disciples ;  for  the  spirit  of 
Christian  life  is  one  and  the  same,  in  all  diversities  of  form  and 
conduct.  But  it  is  plain  to  any  one,  who  will  exercise  the  least 
consideration,  that  it  was  just  as  impossible  to  perpetuate  these 
first  demonstrations,  as  it  is  to  preserve  the  infantile  airs  of 
children  after  childhood  is  passed,  carrying  them  still  on  through 
the  sturdy  toils  and  cares  of  a  mature  age.  The  moment  we 
leave  these  first  scenes  and  pass  on,  down  the  course  of  time, 
to  an  age  where  the  gospel  is  familiarly  known,  its  institutions 
incorporated  with  society,  taking  our  stand,  we  will  say,  in  an 
old  Christian  parish,  we  see  at  once  that  a  body  of  disciples, 
now,  living  in  the  same  spirit,  must  of  necessity  exhibit,  in 
their  outward  conduct,  a  picture  exceedingly  different.  Some 
things  will  be  discontinued,  which  are  here  prominent.  Others 
will  be  varied  in  their  form,  or  be  reproduced  under  new  com- 
binations. Still  other  instrumentalities  and  methods  of  action 
will  be  introduced,  or  created. 

My  object,  in  pursuing  this  subject,  is  to  arrive  at  a  concep- 
tion, if  possible,  of  the  arrangements,  views,  modes  of  proceed- 
ing, and  Christian  conduct,  by  which  practical  religion  may 
best  be  advanced,  in  a  modern  Christian  parish.  And,  that  I 
may  do  this,  in  the  most  effective  and  satisfactory  manner,  I 
have  chosen  to  connect  my  subject  with  the  pentecostal  assem- 
bly ;  that  we  may  see  by  what  law  of  change  our  modern  ar- 
rangements and  demonstrations  are  produced,  and  how  it  is 
the  genius  of  Christianity  to  modify  methods  and  create  forms 
for  itself.  I  am  determined  also  to  this  way  of  handling  my 
subject,  by  the  fact  that  we  seem  to  have  derived  certain  views 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH,  213 

of  religious  conduct  from  the  scene  of  the  pentecost,  which  are 
not  properly  derivable  from  it,  and  which  need  correction. 

Neglecting  logical  precision,  in  the  distribution  of  my  subject 
I  shall  enumerate — 

I.  Some  of  the  points,  in  which  it  must  be  admitted,  by  all 
intelligent  persons,  that  the  modern  Christian  parish  is  not  to 
be  conformed  to  the  scene  of  the  pentecost.    And  then, 

II.  Give  a  connected  view  of  the  conduct  of  a  modern  con- 
gregation, in  points  where  we  are  likely  to  suffer  some  diver- 
sity of  impression. 

The  scene  of  the  pentecost  was  altogether  new  and  strange; 
being,  as  it  were,  a  Solemn  Inaugural  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spiric.  Doubtless  the  reality  of  a  divine  power,  exer- 
cised in  human  souls,  had  before  been  experienced — experi- 
enced, I  may  say,  in  every  soul  that  ever  had  lived.  Such  a 
grace  is  once  or  twice  named  and  sought  for,  in  prayer,  in  the 
Old  Testament.  Still  the  doctrine  of  a  systematic,  quicken- 
ing, sanctifying  agency,  or  inbreathing  love,  as  connected  with 
Jesus,  the  world's  Redeemer,  was  not  yet  conceived.  Indeed, 
such  an  agency  could  not  be  sufficiently  developed,  until  after 
the  redeeming  purposes  of  God  had  first  been  set  forth  to  the 
race,  in  Jesus  the  Messiah.  This  being  done,  it  was  next  to 
be  shown  that  God  is  not  withdrawn,  in  the  ascension  of  Jesus, 
but  abide th  with  us  still  subjectively,  living  as  a  secret  pres- 
ence in  the  race,  to  prosecute  the  same  gracious  designs,  and 
draw  all  hearts  unto  Himself.  And  how  could  such  a  truth  be 
revealed  except  through  physical  demonstrations  and  objective 
shapes  or  incidents  ?  For  whatever  power  He  might  exert, 
in  the  recesses  of  the  human  spirit,  it  would  probably  occur  to 
no  one  to  refer  the  effects  wrought,  to  a  Divine  Agency. 
Hence  the  wondrous  character  of  the  scene,  which  here  bursts 
upon  the  world, — a  sound  from  heaven,  a  rushing  mighty  wind 
sweeping  tlirough  the  hall,  lambent  tips  of  fire  resting  on  the 


214        THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

heads  of  the  assembly,  wondrous  utterances  or  tongues,  aston- 
ishment, awe,  guilty  convictions  struggling  in  each  bosom, 
wills  bowing  to  the  divine  messiahship  of  Jesus,  pardon,  peace, 
new  feelings,  joys  and  principles. 

Now  the  physical  incidents  of  this  scene  had  nothing  to  do 
with  its  substantial  import,  save  as  they  were  added  to  suggest 
the  idea  of  a  Divine  Agency.  They  hold  the  same  mechanical 
relation  to  the  Spirit,  as  a  vehicle,  that  the  human  nature  of 
Jesus  held  to  the  Divine  Word.  They  are  the  body,  the  sen- 
sible show  of  the  Spirit,  the  smoke  by  which  the  fire  was  re- 
vealed. So  of  the  tongues.  They  were  the  sign  of  a  power 
that  was  playing  the  action  of  the  inner  man  and  making  audi- 
ble, as  it  were,  the  activity  within,  of  a  Divine  Influence.  All 
these,  like  the  miraculous  gifts  so  conspicuous  in  the  subse- 
quent history,  were  manifestations  of  the  Spirit  given  to  profit 
withal ;  but  being  only  accidents  or  exponents,  were,  of  course, 
to  be  discontinued,  when  the  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  influence 
from  God  was  sufficiently  developed.  And  as  these  are  dis- 
continued, so  the  spiritual  influence  itself,  when  once  inau- 
gurated, by  these  bold  and  almost  violent  displays  of  energy, 
may  be  expected,  for  much  the  same  reasons,  to  move  upon 
the  world  in  a  less  imposing  method — to  remit,  in  some  de- 
gree, the  extraordinary,  and,  as  life  is  itself  ordinary,  become, 
to  the  human  spirit,  what  the  air  is  to  the  body,  a  Perpetual 
Element  of  inbreathing  love ;  to  dwell  in  the  families,  to  follow 
the  individual  and  whisper  holy  thoughts,  in  solitary  places  and 
silent  hours.  He  is  to  fill  the  world,  and  be  a  spirit  of  life  and 
love,  present  to  all  human  hearts.  He  will  produce  the  same 
exercises  produced  in  the  first  disciples  in  the  scene  of  the  pen- 
tecost ;  sometimes  too  he  will  glorify  himself  in  scenes  of  social 
effect  and  power.  But  the  grand  reality  revealed  is  that  he  is 
never  far  from  any  one  of  us ;  a  good  presence,  illuminating 
our  darkness,  helping  our  weakness,  and  working  in  us  motions 
and  desires  that  cannot  be  uttered. 


AND    A     CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  215 

Other  incidents,  or  demonstrations  of  the  scene,  are  refer- 
able to  the  fact  that  these  first  converts,  or  subjects  of  grace, 
are  not  at  home.  They  are  mostly  Jewish  pilgrims,  who  have 
come  up  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  attend  the  festivals. 
Their  property,  for  the  most  part,  their  business  and  their  fam- 
ilies are  left  behind.  Many  of  them  are  poor  persons,  wholly 
unable  to  support  the  expense  even  of  a  short  stay  at  Jerusa- 
lem. The  others  cannot,  of  course,  leave  them  to  suffer.  So 
they  divide  their  resources  with  the  poor ;  and  some,  who  be- 
long at  Jerusalem,  are  moved  by  the  overflowing  love  of  Christ 
in  their  hearts,  to  part  with  their  whole  property,  that  they 
may  relieve  the  necessities  of  the  brotherhood.  Only  a  few 
days,  or  weeks  are  thus  spent  together.  Probably,  within 
three  months,  they  are  every  man  at  home  in  his  own  house, 
providing  for  his  own  family,  out  of  the  increase  of  his  own  in- 
dustry and  prosperity.  During  their  short  stay  at  Jerusalem, 
they  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  exercise  their  religion.  Accord- 
ingly they  gave  themselves  wholly  up  to  it.  Now  the  religious 
occasion  is  past.  The  extraordinary  is  over  and  the  ordinary 
has  returned.  By  this  time,  they  have  learned,  probably,  and 
received  it  even  as  a  Christian!  maxim,  that  one  who  does  not 
provide  1'or  his  own  denies  the  faith  and  is  worse  than  an 
infidel. 

Again,  these  first  disciples  had  not  yet' been  called  to  blend 
their  piety  with  the  common  cares  and  duties  of  life.  Q,uite 
likely,  they  did  not  for  some  time,  consider  whether  they  should 
hereafter  have  any  thing  more  to  do  with  these  gross  and 
earthly  callings.  But  we,  at  least,  have  learned  what  they 
must  also  have  learned  very  soon,  that  though  we  cannot  live 
by  bread  alone,  it  is  yet  difficult  to  live  without  bread.  We 
have  learned  that  the  very  Church  of  God  itself  is  perpetuated 
in  part,  by  industry  and  production,  that  it  cannot  live  by  ex- 
penditure, that  we  have  something  therefore  to  do,  besides 
breaking  bread  from  house  to  house ;  six  days  to  labor,  a  spec- 
tacle of  thrift  to  present  to  mankind,  as  a  proof  that  Christian 


216  THE    SCENE    OF   THE    PEIS'TECOST, 

virtue  has  its  blessings.  We  must  shine  as  good  citizens, 
neighbors,  parents,  friends.  Life  is  no  mere  camp  meeting 
scene,  but  the  greatest  of  all  Christian  attainments,  we  find, 
is  precisely  that  which  the  first  disciples  had  not  yet  thought 
of,  the  learning  how  to  blend  the  spiritual  and  economical,  or 
industrial  together ;  to  live  in  the  world  and  not  be  of  it ;  to 
labor  in  earthly  things  and  maintain  a  conversation  in  heaven ; 
to  unite  thrift  with  charity,  and  separate  gain  from  greediness ; 
to  use  property  and  not  worship  it ;  to  prepare  comfort  without 
pursuing  pleasure.  For  it  is,  by  just  this  kind  of  trial,  that 
all  spiritual  strength  is  gotten  and  the  Christian  life  becomes  a 
light  to  men. 

It  is  also  clear  that  these  first  disciples  were  wholly  occupied, 
for  a  time,  with  their  high  frames  and  the  strange  ardor  of 
their  new  experiences;  ignorant,  therefore,  for  so  long  a  time, 
of  the  extent  to  which  new  principles  depend  for  their  support 
and  consolidation,  on  the  regulative  force  of  habit.  They  had 
none  of  them  been  educated  in  the  new  religion.  They  had 
all  come  into  it  suddenly  from  without,  under  a  mysterious 
power.  To  have  spoken  to  them  now  of  habit  would  have 
been  to  chill  their  joy  in  its  birth.  They  seemed  to  have  a 
new  character  by  inspiration,  what  need  then  of  so  low  an  in- 
strument as  custom,  to  fortify  a  life  that  was  divine  ?  And  yet, 
within  a  year,  they  began  every  one  of  them,  I  am  quite  sure,  to 
think  of  habit.  Old  habit  began  to  return  upon  them,  as  the 
impulse  of  feeling  abated,  and  they  groaned  under  its  terrible 
power.  Now  they  saw  that  nothing  good  is  firmly  established 
in  the  soul,  till  it  gets  the  force  of  a  santified  habit.  They 
struggled  on  with  holy  pertinacity,  through  many  mistakes  and 
lapses,  after  a  more  purified  and  habitual  union  to  God. 
And  so  they  learned,  by  degrees,  to  make  less  of  mere  frames 
and  sudden  revolutions,  and  more  of  results  that  came  to  pass 
imperceptibly.  Rendering  thanks  to  God,  who  had  called  them 
out  of  darkness  into  light,  by  his  quickening  Spirit,  they  saw 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  217 

the  reality  of  the  change,  less  in  the  frames  experienced,  and 
more  in  the  principles  accepted.  They  discovered  that  it  is  not 
so  much  extasies  that  men  want  in  religion,  as  it  is  principles, 
and  that  no  romantic,  or  enthusiastic  flights  of  experience,  unr 
aided  by  habit,  can  settle  a  new  principle  into  practical  domin- 
ion over  the  mind.  And  now,  yielding  up  the  hope,  which  per- 
haps they  had  first  entertained,  that  the  new  religion  was  to 
blaze  across  the  world  in  a  series  of  pentecostal  scenes,  they 
fell,  gradually,  into  the  conviction  that  disciples  were  to  be 
trained  for  the  church,  as  catechumens,  under  the  power  of  a 
spiritual  discipline,  and  partly  within  the  laws  of  habit.  Influ- 
ences that  operate  gradually,  imperceptibly  and  through  the 
medium  of  godly  exercise  in  the  truth,  became  more  impor- 
tant, and  the  Holy  Spirit,  being  now  fully  revealed,  was  ac- 
cepted as  the  attendant  of  ordinary  life,  the  support  of  its  strug- 
gles and  the  hope  of  all  Christian  efforts. 

Closely  connected  with  the  point  we  are  considering,  it  is 
very  evident  that  the  first  disciples,  at  Jerusalem,  must  have 
suffered  a  great  change  of  view,  when  they  returned  to  their 
homes,  in  respect  to  Christian  training  in  the  lamily.  In  the 
first  weeks  of  their  joyful  experience,  it  probably  had  not  once 
occurred  to  them  that  the  Christian  training  of  children  was, 
hereafter,  to  be  one  of  the  great  sources  of  power  to  the  gospel 
and  a  fruitful  spring  of  supply  to  the  church.  But  descending 
from  the  almost  romantic  pitch  of  feeling,  by  which  they  have 
been  exercised,  finding  themselves  at  home  again,  among  their 
children,  now  arises  the  question— what  Christ  will  do  with 
their  children,  and  what  they  are  themselves  to  do  for  them? 
The  inquiry  ends  in  a  discovery  that  the  children  are  to  be 
trained  up  in  Christ,  not  to  be  gathered  as  new  recruits  from 
the  world.  Here  opens  a  new  era.  Henceforth  it  is  not  the 
breaking  of  bread  from  house  to  house,  no  frames  of  fellow- 
ship, or  sudden  rhapsodies  of  feeling,  nothing  that  belongs  to  a 

group  of  pilgrims  resting  for  a  lew  weeks  in  a  foreign  land,  and 
19 


218       THE  SCENE  OP  THE  PENTECOST, 

there  surprised  by  the  love  of  Jesus,  but  it  is  what  godly  fathers 
and  mothers  may  do  at  home — results  to  be  compassed  not  in 
a  day,  but  gradually  and  carefully,  by  making  the  family  itself 
a  holy  element  and  the  church  a  school  of  love,  to  all  whom  it 
may  gather  from  the  world,  fer  Christian  nurture  and  instruc- 
tion. The  very  ministrations  of  religion,  too,  must  be  differ- 
ent ;  for  now  it  is  not  only  one  of  the  duties  of  the  Christian 
minister  to  convert  men,  but  also  to  educate,  instruct,  edify. 
The  casual,  in  fact,  is  not  all  now,  as  it  was  at  the  pentecost, 
but  the  permanent  has  come  into  its  place.  Nothing  casual,  in 
fact,  is  left,  save  what  may  be  the  minister  of  permanent 
growth  and  supply  ;  for  Christ  is  now  brought,  not  into  some 
meeting  or  caravan  of  pilgrims,  but  he  has  taken  possession  of 
the  society  of  man  itself. 

In  the  same  way,  Christianity,  in  passing  into  the  form  of  a 
settled  institution,  suffers  another  change,  which,  to  the  first 
disciples,  was  quite  inconceivable.  At  the  first  promulgation 
of  the  gospel,  on  the  day  of  pentecost,  the  question  lay  between 
belief  and  rejection.  And  beside  this,  there  was,  for  a  long 
time,  no  other.  Hence  belief  was  taken  to  be  the  sure  condition 
of  salvation.  But,  when  Christ  and  his  gospel  had  entered  into 
eociety  itself,  and  generations  had  been  trained  up  in  Christian 
churches  and  families,  it  resulted,  of  course,  that  many  would 
be  found  in  the  assemblies,  Avho  honor  the  gospel,  and,  in  some 
proper  sense,  believe  it,  but  manifestly  do  not  live  by  its  prin- 
ciples. Now  the  question  lies  between  outward  assent  and 
practical  reception.  Two  classes  also  of  men  are  found  enga- 
ged together  to  uphold  the  Christian  institutions.  They  have 
relations  to  one  another  and  to  the  word  ministered,  such  as 
before  did  not  exist.  And  now  it  is  no  longer  means  to  an  end, 
in  preaching  the  word,  to  publish  the  story  of  Jesus,  and  authen- 
ticate the  same  by  witnesses,  as  was  done  amid  the  scenes  of 
the  pentecost,  but  the  labor  of  preaching  henceforth  is  to  make 
men  follow,  in  practice,  what  they  believe.  Or  if  miracles  were 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  219 

added  then,  to  conclude  all  unbelief,  it  is  now  the  labor,  since 
they  can  not  any  longer  be  seen  by  the  eyes,  to  prove  the  mira- 
cles. At  first  there  were  only  friends  and  enemies,  worshippers 
and  scoffers.  I\ow  there  is  a  large  body  of  intermediates,  or 
half  believers,  who  desire  and  support  the  worship,  and  who, 
if  they  are  to  be  gained,  must  be  gained  by  methods  suited  to 
their  case.  Sometimes  they  will  be  drawn  to  a  new  and  ab- 
rupt change  of  life,  in  scenes  like  that  of  the  pentecost,  as  if 
coming  in  from  an  outpost  of  enmity  or  derision ;  quite  as  often, 
perhaps,  they  will  come  into  the  truth,  if  at  all,  imperceptibly, 
by  years  of  exercise,  the  fruit  of  which  will  display  itself  only  in 
the  final  results  wrought. 

A  very  great  change,  also,  is  ere  long  to  appear,  as  you  will 
perceive,  in  the  entrance  of  diverse  opinions,  thus  of  sects  and 
controversies— consequently  new  modes  of  duty ,  cast  by  new  re- 
lations. The  simplicity  of  mere  love,  displayed,  as  it  was,  in  the 
first  scenes  of  the  gospel,  could  not  continue,  however  desirable 
it  may  seem.  Men  must  think  as  well  as  love,  and  thought  must 
make  its  inroads  on  mere  relations  of  feeling.  Now  there  must 
be  formulas,  organized  combinations,  weary  debates  and,  as 
love  is  imperfect,  strifes  and  jealousies.  And  thus  a  long  pro- 
cess of  forming  and  re-forming  must  go  on,  till  the  Christ  of  the 
head  becomes  as  catholic  as  the  Christ  of  the  heart.  Mean- 
time all  must  stand  for  the  truth.  There  must  be  no  counte- 
nance given  to  error.  The  happy  days  of  Christian  childhood 
are  left  far  behind,  and  every  church  is  set  in  relations  of  duty 
that  are  partly  antagonistic.  It  must  take  a  form  required  by 
its  new  necessities.  What  to  do  for  the  truth,  whom  to  ac- 
knowledge, when  to  resist  and  when  to  forbear,  how  much  con- 
sequence to  attribute  to  opinions,  over  what  errors  to  spread 
the  mantle  of  charity,  how  to  maintain  a  polemic  attitude  in  the 
unity  of  the  Spirit — these  are  the  grave  questions  that  are  to 
occupy  ministers  and  churches,  and,  in  the  ri^ht  exercise  of 
which,  they  are  to  justify  their  Christian  name.  And  on  this 


220  TIIE    SCENE   OF    THE   PENTECOST, 

will  depend  the  power  of  religion,  quite  as  much  as  on  the  du- 
ties done  to  those,  who  are  aliens  and  unbelievers. 

Next  we  pass  on  to  a  field  where  the  new  creating  power  of 
the  gospel  is  displayed  yet  more  distinctly.  The  first  disciples, 
probably,  had  no  thought  but  to  swim  in  the  strange  joy  they 
felt,  as  forgiven  of  God  and  filled  with  the  love  of  Jesus.  Of 
Christianity,  as  a  fixed  institution,  taking  the  whole  society  of 
man  into  its  bosom,  and  becoming  the  school  of  the  race,  they 
had  probably,  at  first,  no  conception.  Passing  thence  to  the 
modern  Christian  faith,  how  great  is  the  change.  What  a 
variety  of  means,  instruments  and  arrangements  has  it  created, 
maintaining  all  from  age  to  age,  by  a  charge,  compared  with 
which,  the  casual  contributions  to  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem, 
were  far  less  significant  in  their  effects,  and,  perhaps,  not  more 
to  be  commended,  as  proofs  of  a  Christian  spirit. 

First  a  house  of  worship,  and,  in  order  to  this,  the  new  spir- v 
itual  life  must  become  a  holder  of  real  estate,  and  be  acknow- 
ledged as  such  in  the  laws.    To  make  the  place  worthy  of  the 
cause,  genius  and  taste  are  to  be  called  into  exercise,  and  a  new 
Christian  art  developed. 

To  maintain  expenses  and  repairs,  there  must  be  officers 
created,  and  this  requires  an  organized  responsibility. 

Mere  forms  and  sacraments  being  insufficient,  preachers  of 
the  word  must  be  carefully  trained  for  the  service  and  in- 
stalled therein,  to  feed  the  intelligence  of  the  flock,  and  lead 
them  into  the  truth.  Their  official  rights  and  duties  must  be 
ascertained  and,  correspondent!)',  the  rights  and  duties  of  the 
flock — matters  all  how  distant  from  the  scene  of  the  pentecost. 

The  times  and  forms  of  worship  need  to  be  settled ;  for, 
whether  a  liturgy  is  used  or  not,  no  organic  action  can  be  main- 
tained without  forms  of  some  kind,  to  serve  as  laws  of  concert 
and  rules  of  order. 

Christian  music,  as  a  new  art,  must  be  created,  and  the  chil- 
dren and  youth  must  be  trained  therein,  so  that  all  may  bear 


AND   A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  221 

their  part  in  the  worship,  and  the  worship  exercise  and  inspire 
a  devout  feeling  in  all. 

There  must  be  a  punctual  and  regular  attendance ;  for  the 
habit  of  worship  is  necessary  to  its  value,  as  a  power  over  char- 
acter. Hence  there  must  be  a  common  responsibility — all  must 
be  enlisted.  There  must  be  a  church  spirit,  and,  in  order  to 
this,  a  fraternal  spirit  in  the  members,  verified  by  mutual  sym- 
pathy and  aid,  under  the  common  burdens  of  life — a  kind  of  ser- 
vice, I  will  add,  which  is  often  far  more  beneficent  than  a  com- 
munity of  goods  would  be ;  for  this  latter  might  be  only  a  pre- 
mium given  to  idleness,  while  the  other  is  but  a  good  encour- 
agement  to  the  ingenuous  struggles  of  industry.  There  must, 
however,  be  some  Christian  provision  for  the  poor,  that  they 
also  may  have  their  part  in  the  Christian  flock,  and  the  bless- 
ings of  charity  descend  upon  it  and  dwell  in  it. 

Nor  is  the  article  of  dress,  in  a  Christian  assembly,  too  insig- 
nificant to  be  a  subject  of  care.  Probably  no  one  had  a  thought 
of  this  in  the  pentecostal  assembly,  but  we  find  the  apostles,  not 
long  after,  giving  serious  lectures  to  the  disciples  upon  their 
dress.  Dress  and  manners,  manners  and  morals,  morals  and 
piety,  are  all  connected  by  an  intimate  or  secret  law.  A  people 
therefore,  who  are  careful  to  appear  before  God,  in  a  well  cho- 
sen, modest  and  appropriate  dress,  one  that  is  neither  careless 
nor  ostentatious,  one  that  indicates  sobriety,  neatness,  good 
sense,  and  a  desire  to  be  approved  of  God  more  than  to  be,  seen 
of  men,  will  avoid  barbarous  improprieties  of  every  sort.  Their 
manner  will  express  reverence  to  God.  What  they  express 
they  will  be  likely  to  feel,  and  if  they  become  true  disciples  of 
Christ,  as  there  is  greater  reason  to  hope,  their  manners  will 
have  a  nicer  propriety,  and  their  whole  demeanor  will  be  more 
thoughtful,  consistent  and  lovely. 

Sometimes  it  will  be  the  duty  of  a  Christian  parish,  inas- 
much as  its  hope,  for  the  future,  is  in  the  youth  and  children,  to 

maintain  a  parish  school.    A  Sunday  school  to  employ,  in 
19* 


222       THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

Christian  studies  and  good  works,  the  talents  of  the  brother- 
hood, and  exert  a  Christian  power  over  children  who  would 
otherwise  receive  no  religious  instruction,  we  now  regard  as 
indispensable. 

You  begin  to  see.  in  the  inventory  I  have  here  made  out, 
and  which  might  be  indefinitely  extended,  how  many  things 
Christianity  must  gather  to  itself,  as  it  passes  into  the  form  of 
a  settled  institution.  Not  one  of  the  articles  I  have  here  named 
ever  entered  the  mind,  probably,  of  the  first  disciples,  at  Jerusa- 
lem. And  yet  they  are  all  necessary,  and  being  necessary, 
exist,  in  so  far,  by  a  divine  requirement.  It  now  remains — 

II.  Extending  the  comparison  thus  begun  between  the  scene 
of  the  penteoost  and  a  modern  Christian  parish,  to  bring  into 
view,  under  cover  of  what  I  have  advanced,  a  few  points  where 
we  appear  to  suffer  impressions,  that  are  partially  erroneous 
and  need  correction.  And  here  the  question  is,  under  what 
views,  by  what  modes  of  conduct  and  proceeding,  in  a  modern 
Christian  congregation,  we  may  advance  the  power  of  religion 
most  effectually?  And — 

1.  Is  there  not  some  reason  to  think  that  we  have  derived, 
from  the  scene  of  the  pentecost,  a  view  of  spiritual  influence, 
which  it  \vas  not  designed  to  teach  and  which  needs  a  degree 
of  qualification  ?  It  cannot  be  questioned  that  a  mind,  exer- 
cised under  sin,  must  be  exercised,  in  some  sense,  now  as  then ; 
for  sin  is  the  same,  in  its  nature,  as  it  then  was,  and  turning 
from  sin  to  God  is  the  same  exercise.  Still  it  remains  as  a 
first  question,  and  one  of  radical  importance,  whether  the  Holy 
Spirit,  revealed  in  that  scene,  was  revealed  principally  as  a 
spirit  of  scenes,  or  as  the  indwelling  quickener  and  sanctifier 
of  man.  It  cannot  be  wrong,  when  a  community  is  deeply,  but 
soberly  and  reasonably  moved  by  the  things  of  religion*  to  re- 
fer the  fact  to  the  same  Divine  Agency  there  exhibited.  But 
if  one  professes,  now,  to  speak  with  tongues,  by  the  same 
Spirit,  it  may  not  be  so  readily  believed.  There  is,  probably, 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  223 

as  little  reason  for  this  gill  of  tongues  now,  as  there  is  for  the 
reappearance  of  Jesus  in  Galilee,  or  Paul  in  Damascus.  There 
certainly  is  much  in  the  scene  of  the  pentecost  that  is  only  oc- 
casional, a  temporary  show  work,  which  belonged  to  the  inau- 
gural of  the  Spirit,  but  not  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Spirit.  And 
now  that  the  doctrine  is  intellectually  produced  and  appre- 
hended, what  does  it  affirm  ?— a  Scene-Spirit,  or  something  far 
more  august  and  worthier  of  our  thanksgiving,  that  Jehovah, 
the  Eternal  Life,  is  dwelling  as  a  power  of  good,  a  light,  an  aid, 
a  regenerator  and  sanctifier,  in  the  bosom  of  the  world — a 
Spirit  from  God  inhabiting  the  church  as  a  church  life,  the 
Christian  house,  as  a  house  life,  the  individual  from  infancy  to 
to  the  grave  as  the  life  of  Reason  and  Love— Christ  himself, 
present  invisibly  to  all,  breathing  his  own  nature  and  begetting 
his  own  image  in  their  heart.  This,  in  fact,  we  all  believe, 
but  we  seem  to  fancy  still  that  the  Scene-Spirit  is  the  greater 
gift.  Practically,  if  not  theoretically,  we  hold  this  gift  in  so 
high  estimation  that  the  Abiding  Spirit  is  left  in  shadow.  We 
extol  the  abiding  grace,  in  words,  and  yet  we  practically  as- 
sume that  a  Christian  can  be  revived,  or  an  ungodly  person 
converted,  only  by  the  grace  of  a  scene,  or  pentecostal  occa- 
sion. Even  the  ordinary  means,  which  God  has  instituted  for 
the  advancement  of  practical  religion,  such  as  preaching,  fam- 
ily training  and  godly  living  itself,  we  appear  to  suppose  can 
have  no  renewing  efficacy,  apart  from  a  scene  of  revival  and 
the  peculiar  mode  of  spiritual  influence  there  exerted. 

Most  certain  it  is  that  we  separate,  just  here,  from  the  mass 
of  the  Christian  world.  Never,  before,  in  any  church  known 
to  us  in  history,  has  the  impression  prevailed  that  prevails  in 
our  American  churches.  And  have  we  not  some  reason,  in 
such  a  fact,  to  presume  that  our  view  of  spiritual  influence  is, 
at  least,  partially  mistaken?  Under  the  prelatical  forms  of 
Christianity,  the  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  has  been  reduced  to  an 
abiding  presence,  in  sacraments,  in  priestly  ministrations  and 


224       THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

the  regulative  guidance  of  church  opinions ;  which  is  very 
nearly  the  same  thing  as  a  complete  denial  of  the  doctrine,  for 
it  takes  away  that  which  is  liveliest  and  dearest  in  the  grace  of 
the  Spirit— his  immediate  intercourse  with  souls — leaving  only 
a  mediate  grace  that  goes  to  exalt  and  deify,  so  to  speak,  the 
church  prerogatives,  enthroning,  thus,  a  barren  superstition 
and  distilling  upon  men,  not  as  sinners  but  as  prisoners  rather 
to  a  narrow  idolatry.  We  have  endeavored  to  restore  the 
doctrine  of  an  immediate  intercourse  of  grace  with  souls,  and 
in  so  doing,  we  seem  to  have  thrust  ourselves  into  an  opposite 
extreme,  the  belief  in  an  occasional  Spirit — an  extraordinary 
Spirit.  Therefore,  when  we  see  no  extraordinary  movement, 
when  there  is  no  revival  of  religion,  we  say  that  the  Spirit  is 
withdrawn.  And  though  we  consciously  speak  in  a  figure,  we 
practically  mean  more  than  perhaps  we  suppose.  There  is,  if 
I  am  not  deceived,  a  general  impression,  in  our  churches, 
which  is  nearly  equivalent  to  a  theoretic  belief,  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  not  an  abiding  and  always  available  grace.  He  is  not 
so  much  a  perpetual  spring  of  motion,  as  an  occasional  power 
of  corn-motion.  What  minister  of  God's  truth  expects  the 
word  to  be  fruitful,  what  Christian  really  expects  to  grow, 
what  ungodly  person  thinks  it  in  order  to  repent  of  his  sins, 
when  there  is  no  revival  of  religion?  The  very  idea  of  true 
piety  is  clouded  by  the  same  illusion.  It  is  a  frame.  It  is  more 
resembled  to  heat,  than  to  a  patient  life  of  duty  and  faith.  It  is 
only  once  in  a  few  years  that  Christian  efforts  are  means  to 
ends.  How  different  the  result  if  we  truly  held  the  faith  of  an 
abiding  Spirit,  present  to  every  good  thought  and  righteous 
struggle,  upholding  and  cherishing  all  weakness;  drawing  us 
ever  to  a  closer  and  purer  fellowship  with  God,  pervading  the 
family,  filling  the  church,  fertilizing  the  word,  and  connecting 
duty  with  fruit  by  an  infallible  law.  Then  every  walk  of  life 
would  be  sanctified  by  a  religious  spirit.  Piety  would  be  con- 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN   PARISH.  225 

slant,  and  every  breath  we  draw  would  infuse  some  flavor  of  a 
heavenly  character. 

Believing,  as  I  think  we  have  reason  to  believe,  that  this  is 
the  real  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  that  was  revealed,  through  the 
scene  of  the  pentecost,  as  an  occasional  and  extraordinary 
scene,  I  make  no  question  that  there  will  often  be  scenes  now, 
as  there  always  have  been,  of  peculiar  power  and  activity  in  re- 
ligious impulses.  As  Christians  are  human,  they  will  some- 
times be  unfaithful  and  sink  into  a  decline  of  piety,  requiring 
thus  to  be  re-animated.  Besides  it  is  quite  probable  that,  if 
there  were  no  periodical  fluctuations,  or  exaltations  in  the 
church,  the  memory  of  a  Divine  Agency  in  souls  would  die 
out  and  the  reality  of  the  doctrine  perish.  I  only  deplore  the 
certain  loss  we  suffer,  when  we  practically  cease  to  hold  any 
thing  but  exaltations ;  for  then  also  has  perished  all  that  is 
most  genial  and  worthiest  of  God  in  the  doctrine,  and  the  part 
we  retain  sinks  into  a  partial  superstition,  because  the  continu- 
ity of  the  doctrine  is  lost. 

2.  It  is  to  be  considered  whether  worship,  as  compared  with 
preaching,  is  not  to  be  held  as  a  principal,  or  more  effective 
means  of  grace.  It  was  not  so  in  the  scene  of  the  pentecost, 
for  the  subjects  of  that  scene  were  not  prepared  to  worship — 
worship,  as  a  public  Christian  rite,  was  not  yet  instituted.  But 
with  us,  in  an  established  Christian  parish,  it  is  otherwise. 
The  assembly  are  called,  every  time  they  meet,  to  exercise 
themselves  not  only  in  hearing,  but  also  in  acts  and  feelings 
directly  related  to  God.  The  worship  is  before  all  and  for  all, 
and,  if  what  I  have  said  of  the  Spirit  as  an  abiding  grace  is 
true,  it  is  for  all  times.  Nor  is  there  any  thing  which,  taken 
as  a  presentation  of  Christian  truth,  presents  it  with  such  vivid- 
ness and  power  to  the  mind,  as  worship  itself.  This  is  truth 
in  act.  It  presents  the  Christian  soul  before  God,  struggling 
up  unto  His  bosom,  in  sentiments  appropriate  to  the  relation  of 
creature  and  a  sinner  to  his  almighty  Father  and  Redeemer. 


226       THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

Abstractions  are  here  forgotten,  all  doubtful  and  debateable 
matter,  such  as  confuses  the  mind,  is  left  behind.  And  the 
truth  presented  is  received  in  the  molds  of  exercise,  not  in  those 
of  cogitation.  It  comes  not  as  to  a  questioning,  judging  fac- 
ulty, but  it  passes,  in  all  who  worship,  directly  into  a  feeling. 
They  become,  in  their  own  persons,  the  working  organs  of 
truth.  It  passes  directly  into  the  spiritual  chemistry  of  the 
soul,  as  spirit  and  life. 

If  then  all  who  are  present,  the  guiltiest  as  well  as  the 
purest,  can  feel  that  they  are  not  here  to  be  spectators,  but  to 
worship ;  that  they  are  called  to  pour  out  their  souls  in  the 
supplications,  thanksgivings  and  praises  of  the  assembly,  and 
to  believe  that  the  Abiding  Spirit  is  here,  to  enlighten  their  un- 
derstanding, to  move  their  sluggish  heart  and  assist  them  to 
exercise  the  believing  and  godly  spirit,  how  manifest  is  it  that 
the  worship  may  be  a  most  effective  means  of  grace  to  all.  In 
this  point  of  view,  or  as  calling  a  whole  assembly  into  action, 
it  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  the  liturgical  plan  has  some  ad- 
vantage, if  only  it  were  limited  to  what  may  be  called  the 
standing  offices  of  worship,  in  distinction  from  those  which  are 
occasional,  and  sufficient  cautions  were  applied,  to  distinguish 
between  saying  prayers  and  being  Christians.  The  Moravi- 
ans gain  the  same  results,  in  part,  by  a  very  abundant  use  of 
singing,  as  an  instrument  of  devotion  for  all  the  assembly. 
However,  the  same  result,  for  the  most  part,  can  be  gained, 
under  a  more  extempore  form  of  worship ;  and  would  be,  if  it 
were  not  hindered  by  teachings,  that  discourage  and  repel  a 
part  of  the  assembly.  I  speak  of  that  part  of  the  assembly  who 
do  not  regard  themselves  as  spiritual  disciples.  They  are  told, 
and  rightly,  that  God  will  not  accept  the  sacrifices  of  the 
wicked,  also  that  the  prayers  of  the  wicked  are  an  abomination. 
But  they  are  left  under  the  impression  that  they  must  undergo 
a  spiritual  renovation  of  character,  before  they  have  any  right 
to  think  of  offering  acceptable  worship.  And  why  not  ?  How 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  227 

can  the  unbeliever  pray,  if  his  prayer  is  only  sin?    He  should 
pray,  I  answer,  not  as  an  unbeliever,  but  as  one  renouncing  hia 
unbelief  and  seeking  a  deliverance  from  the  power  of  evil.    If, 
up  to  this  time,  he  has  lived  in  sin,  that  is  the  very  reason  why 
he  should  pray,  and  why  God  calls  him  to  pray.    He  is  only 
not  to  pray  as  adhering  to  wickedness ;  for  it  is  that  which  is 
an  abomination  to  God.    The  true  doctrine,  therefore,  of  wor- 
ship is  that  all  is  for  all.     When  we  come  before  God  we  come 
as  sinners,  and,  as  such,  are  to  worship.     The  penitence,  the 
holy  desires,  the  thanks,  the  praises  are  for  all,  and  lor  one  as 
truly  as  for  another.    If  there  be  a  man  present  who  had  never 
a  serious  thought  in  his  life,  then  let  him  have  one.    If  he  never 
worshipped,  then  let  him  begin  to  worship.    Let  him  take  up 
every  expression  of  Christian  feeling  and  make  it  his  own.    Let 
the  christless  come  to  Christ,  here  to  begin  their  alphabet  and 
make  the  spirit  of  the  godly  life  their  spirit.    There  is  not  a 
hand  breadth  of  wall  standing,  any  where,  to  keep  them  from 
God.    He  will  come  over  even  mountains  of  sin  to  meet  them. 
He  is  here,  by  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  draw  them  unto  his  bosom. 
Holding  such  a  view  of  worship,  is  it  not  clear  that  it  may  be 
even  a  more  powerful  instrument  of  grace  than  preaching  1 
Growing  up  in  it  from  childhood,  exercised  in  it,  as  their  own 
exercise,  taught  how  to  worship  and  how  to  discriminate  true 
worship  from  that  which  is  false,  is  it  credible  that  they  may 
not  be  trained  to  love  it,  as  a  privilege,  and  receive,  through 
means  of  it,  though  perhaps  imperceptibly,  the  true  Christian 
spirit. 

But  we  seem  to  hold  that  men  must  be  converted  under 
preaching,  as  in  the  scene  of  the  pentecost,  before  they  are 
called  to  worship.  And  this  not  only  discourages  the  exercise, 
but  it  creates  a  false  estimate  of  preaching.  How  shall  they 
hear  without  a  preacher,  we  say,  holding  the  inference  that 
preaching  is  God's  chief  instrument,  and  not  observing  how 
this  language  had  its  truth,  in  the  fact  that  the  apostle  was 


228        THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

speaking1  of  persons  who  were  yet  ignorant  of  Christ,  and  that, 
under  established  Christian  institutions,  a  wholly  different  case 
is  presented.  Assuming  thus  that  all  must  be  converted,  un- 
der preaching,  as  at  the  day  of  pentecost,  we  over  magnify 
preaching.  Our  assemblies  are  gathered,  not  for  the  worship 
of  God,  but  to  hear  preaching.  Their  religion  often  is  to  be 
critics  of  preaching.  They  bear  the  worship  as  a  tax,  or  pen- 
ance, on  the  way  to  come  at  the  sermon.  Sometimes  it  will 
be  observed  that  the  audience  are  pitched  about,  into  all  dull 
and  listless  postures,  during  the  worship,  and  then,  coming  to 
the  sermon,  they  will  begin  to  stir  themselves  and  draw  them- 
selves up  into  position,  as  if  they  were  now  to  receive  something 
of  consequence !  How  could  they  express  a  worse  irreverence 
for  God,  or  one  more  offensive  to  pious  feeling,  than  to  say,  by 
signs  so  unequivocal,  that  they  care  more  for  hearing  a  man 
discourse,  than  they  do  for  communion  with  God  Himself!  I 
do  not  say  that  any  such  irreverence  is  intended,  and  yet  there 
is  a  power  of  reaction  in  signs  and  postures,  appropriate  to 
irreverence,  to  beget  unconsciously  the  feeling  they  express. 
And  the  contrary  is  equally  true,  so  that  if  a  Christian  assem- 
bly are  seen  bowing  themselves  upon  the  worship,  as  the  prin- 
cipal good  of  the  occasion,  it  is  natural  and  right  to  expect  that 
they  will  have  a  correct,  sober,  thoughtful  spirit. 

Nor  is  the  error,  of  which  I  complain,  attributable,  as  many 
suppose,  to  the  defect  of  a  liturgy— certainly  not  as  a  neces- 
sary, or  unavoidable  result.  But  it  comes  as  a  natural  re- 
sult, for  the  most  part,  of  the  doctrine,  often  formally  assert- 
ed, that  a  large  part  of  the  audience  have  really  nothing  to  do 
with  the  worship,  until  after  they  are  converted,  and  that 
preaching  is  God's  chief  instrument  of  conversion— a  doctrine 
which  operates,  first,  to  give  the  minister  an  exaggerated  opin- 
ion of  preaching,  and  tempts  him  thus  to  dispatch  the  worship 
with  too  little  effort  to  give  it  interest  and  power ;  then,  sec- 
ondly, encourages  the  assembly,  since  many  of  them  can  do 


AND   A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  229 

nothing  better,  to  busy  themselves  as  amateur  hearers  and 
critics  of  preaching.  Besides,  it  is  not  to  be  withheld,  that  one 
of  the  reasons  why  so  muchis  made,  comparatively,  of  worship, 
in  those  forms  of  order  which  embrace  a  liturgy,  is  that  the 
preaching  is  frequently  so  inefficient.  When  the  sermon  is 
nothing  better  than  an  Apology  for  the  want  of  one,  a  brief, 
pointless  homily,  without  either  unction,  or  argument,  or  fire, 
to  kindle  the  mind  to  a  glow,  what  is  there  left  but  to  make 
something,  if  possible,  out  of  the  liturgy  ?  And  this  brings  me 
to  speak — 

3.  Of  the  kind  of  preaching  necessary  to  the  highest  religious 
effect,  in  a  modern  Christian  congregation.  For  here  also  there 
seem$  to  be  erroneous  impressions  in  many  of  our  churches,  as 
well  as  in  respect  to  the  relative  importance  of  preaching.  The 
preaching  of  Peter  on  the  day  of  pentecost,  was  scarcely  more 
than  a  mere  delivery  of  news.  And  how  often  is  this  exam- 
ple held  up  for  imitation.  '  See  how  simple  it  was,  how  easy 
of  apprehension,  and  then  what  power  it  had' !  As  if  the  telling 
over  and  over  of  old  news,  announcing  again  facts  that  have 
been  known  to  every  hearer  from  his  childhood  up,  as  famil- 
iarly as  he  knows  his  right  hand,  could  have  the  same  value  and 
be  means  to  ends,  for  producing  the  same  effects !  '  See,  too, 
it  is  said  on  every  side,  how  immediate  the  results  which  fol- 
lowed.' And  since  the  results  were  conversions  to  Christ,  the 
inference  is  taken  that  every  sermon  ought  to  aim  at  the  imme- 
diate conversion  of  the  hearers,  and  be  an  appropriate  instru- 
ment for  a  day  of  pentecost.  Let  the  subjects  be  few,  the  illus- 
trations low,  the  action  extravagant,  conversions  counted  the 
measure  of  success.  As  if  it  were  the  errand  of  Christianity 
to  get  by  the  need  of  intelligence,  and  beget  a  sanctity  that  has 
no  fellowship  with  dignity !  Such  views  and  methods  of  preach- 
ing are  doubtless  somewhat  less  absurd,  when  there  is  no  end 
in  view  but  to  serve  an  occasional  effect ;  but  they  can  have  no 

other  result,   when  continued  in  the  same  assembly,  than  to 
20 


230       THE  SCENES  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

produce,  first,  soreness  and  distaste,  finally,  a  settled  disgust 
towards  every  thing  sacred.  A  camp  meeting,  or  a  band  of 
pilgrims  gathered,  for  a  single  week,  a  thousand  miles  from 
home,  may  well  enough  desire  such  kind  of  preaching  as  will 
serve  the  zest  of  the  occasion.  But  a  regular  established 
Christian  congregation,  who  expec^to  live  and  grow  on  the 
same  spot,  from  age  to  age,  must  be  required  to  gird  up  the 
loins  of  their  mind.  They  must  reject  the  diluted  drinks  and 
betake  themselves  to  meat.  An  evangelist,  or  preaching  va- 
grant, who  goes  about  from  place  to  place  to  carry  on  conver- 
sion as  a  trade,  may  get  on  with  a  very  slender  furniture.  A 
few  stories,  intermixed  with  exhortations  and  rhapsodies,  and 
supported  by  new  machinery,  will  suffice.  But  the  life  of  a 
Christian  congregation,  it  will  be  found,  depends  not  on  scenes 
and  machineries,  not  on  storms  and  paroxysms,  but  on  a  capacity 
rather  to  receive  instruction ;  to  be  exercised  in  high  argument, 
to  bear  with  patience  the  discovery  how  little  they  know,  and 
on  a  good  healthful  appetite  for  Christian  food.  To  be  able  to 
burn  in  a  fire  decides  nothing.  They  must  know  how  to  supply 
the  fuel  of  devotion,  out  of  their  own  exercise  in  God's  truth. 
They  mustl  ove  a  ministry  of  doctrine,  or  intellectual  teaching. 
Neither  is  it  doctrine,  as  many  fancy,  when  they  complain  of  a 
want  of  doctrinal  preaching,  to  get  a  few  stale  dogmas  im- 
pounded in  the  head,  or  stuck  in  the  brain,  as  dead  flies  in  oint- 
ment— all  the  rich  treasures  of  thought  and  high  motive  and  sol- 
emn contemplation,  garnered  up  in  God's  word,  must  be  brought 
out,  seen,  understood  and  fall  upon  the  soul,  as  manna  from  the 
skies.  Like  manna,  too,  it  must  be  the  supply  of  to-day  only. 
A  new  shower  must  be  gathered  for  to-morrow,  and  the  mind 
of  the  people  must  be  kept  in  active  and  progressive  motion. 

Such  a  kind  of  preaching  will  feed  the  intelligence  of  the  hear- 
ers, and  raise  up  pillars  in  the  churches.  And  here  is  the  great 
distinction  between  the  preaching  proper  to  the  scene  of  pente- 
cost,  and  that  of  an  established  Christian  congregation.  It  is 


AND    A   CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  231 

the  difference  between  Peter,  giving  news  to  the  pilgrims,  and 
Paul  offering  some  things  hard  to  be  understood,  to  churches  of 
organized  disciples.  Such  preaching  is  required  in  an  estab- 
lished congregation,  as  will  exert  an  educating  power.  And 
yet  it  will,  in  that  way,  be  a  converting  power,  as  efficacious  as 
any  other,  if  only  it  is  expected  to  be.  When  the  community 
is  more  deeply  moved  by  spiritual  things,  it  will,  of  course,  vary 
its  tone  and  its  subjects  to  suit  the  occasion,  perhaps  multiply 
its  efforts ;  but  never  as  being  in  a  hurry,  lest  the  grace  of  the 
occasion  may  be  capriciously  withdrawn,  never  over-preach- 
ing, or  preaching  out,  as  if  nothing  were  to  be  done  by  thought 
in  the  hearers,  but  all  by  the  power  of  a  commotion  round 
them ;  for  it  is  not  the  same  thing  to  fall  out  of  dignity  and  self 
possession,  as  to  get  rid  of  sin,  neither  is  a  fever,  or  a  whirl- 
wind any  proper  instrument  of  sanctification.  Mournful  proofs 
have  we  to  the  contrary.  Better  is  it  to  reserve  a  power  for 
the  ordinary,  even  when  we  are  in  the  extraordinary.  It  is 
not  wisdom  to  overwork  the  harvest,  so  that  we  have  no 
strength  left  for  the  bread.  Rather  let  the  preacher  believe  in 
the  Abiding  Spirit  and  count  upon  a  kind  of  perpetual  harvest. 
Let  him  think  to  gain  many  to  Christ  imperceptibly,  by  keep- 
ing alive  the  interest  of  God's  truth  and  letting  it  distil  upon 
the  hearers  as  a  dew,  and  through  them  on  the  rising  families. 
Whatever  he  gains  in  this  way  will  assuredly  remain  ;  for  it  is 
not  the  birth  of  an  occasion,  but  of  quiet  conviction.  It  par- 
takes the  nature  of  habit.  It  is  the  fruit  of  a  godly  training. 
Seldom  therefore  will  it  fall  away,  or  disappoint  expectation. 

Holding  this  view  of  preaching,  it  will  be  seen  that  I  do  not 
undervalue  its  power  in  a  Christian  assembly,  when  I  give  pre- 
cedence to  the  rites  of  worship.  If  preaching  be  foolishness,  it 
is  yet  the  power  of  God.  Without  the  advantage  of  earnest, 
intellectual  preaching,  it  is  impossible  to  produce  an  energetic, 
manly  race  of  disciples,  Lej  any  American  Christian  visit  the 
nations  of  the  old  world,  where  pageants,  forms,  sacraments 


232      THE  SCENES  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

and  liturgies  have  been,  lor  long  ages,  the  principal  instruments 
oi  religion  ;  where  disciples  are  made  through  their  eyes,  more 
than  through  their  understanding,  and  thought  is  not  supposed 
to  be  any  proper  instrument  oi'  piety ;  let  him  there  take  the 
gauge  of  character,  see  how  the  masses  of  the  people  are 
rather  enfeebled,  than  strengthened,  by  their  religion,  holding 
it  as  superstition,  not  as  a  faith,  incurious,  dull,  without  ear- 
nest purposes,  or  spirit  equal  to  any  high  conflict  in  life ;  whom 
it  would  so  often  be  absurd  to  address  in  the  Christian  exhor- 
tation, "  quit  yourselves  like  men,"  since  they  have  really  quit 
being  men — then  let  him  turn  again  to  New  England,  consider 
the  energy,  the  inquisitivness,  the  sharp  understanding,  the  in- 
domitable power,  the  iron  principles,  recollecting  how  these  are 
the  fruits  of  a  religion  that  works  only  through  intelligence,  an 
over-preaching  church,  a  bald,  unliturgical  worship — doing 
this,  he  must  be  singularly  constituted  not  to  feel  some  respect 
for  Christian  preaching  and  possibly  for  Puritanism  itself. 

4.  It  is  discoverable,  I  think,  that  in  copying  the  type  of  reli- 
gious exercise  exhibited  in  the  scenes  of  the  Pentecost,  we 
have  overlooked,  to  a  lamentable  degree,  the  office  and  power 
of  family  nurture.  I  have  spoken  already,  of  the  change  of 
view  that  must  probably  have  been  suffered  by  the  first  disci- 
ples, in  reference  to  this  matter,  when  they  returned  to  their 
homes.  Hitherto  they  had  fully  conceived,  we  may  suppose, 
of  no  effective  instrument  but  preaching,  no  jnlet  to  the  church, 
but  that  of  adult  conversion.  In  the  same  way,  it  happened, 
every  where,  in  the  first  planting  of  Christianity,  that  the  prin- 
cipal effort  was  directed  to  the  conversion  of  adults.  It  could 
not  be  otherwise.  And  hence  it  is,  I  conceive,  that  family  nur- 
ture and  infant  baptism  are  not  more  frequently  mentioned  and 
more  prominently  set  forth.  God  does  every  thing  in  its  time 
and  not  before.  There  are  however  distinct  evidences  of  infant 
baptism  in  the  scripture,  evidences  quite  as  distinct  as  could  be 
expected,  and  such,  I  think,  as  ought  to  convince  .and  will  con- 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  233 

vince  any  person,  who  sets  himself  to  a  fair  and  easy  interpre- 
tation of  the  scripture  language.  But,  if  it  were  otherwise,  if 
the  evidence  were  still  more  doubtful  than  it  is,  the  fact  that 
such  a  practice  became  prevalent  in  the  Christian  church  at 
an  early  period,  connected  with  the  fact  that  the  gathering  of 
adult  converts  must  have  been,  for  a  considerable  time,  the 
main  struggle  and  the  engrossing  care  of  the  new  faith,  would 
at  least  make  room  for  the  inquiry,  whether  the  rite,  when  de- 
veloped, was  not  still  a  proper  devlopment  of  the  interior  prin- 
ciples of  the  faith  ?  For  when  Christianity  entered  into  human 
society  and  became  a  regulative  element  in  its  constituted  rela- 
tions, then  and  not  before  could  it  fully  unfold  the  real  content 
of  its  principles.  And  a  suspicion  of  this  kind  might  well  ripen 
into  a  settled  conviction,  when  the  analogies  of  the  old  system 
are  brought  into  view  and  the  genius  of  Christianity,  as  a  com- 
prehensive blessing  for  the  race,  is  considered.  Then  too  an 
important  signification  will  be  found,  in  the  very  peculiar  ten- 
derness of  Jesus  to  infant  children  and  the  very  singular  lan- 
guage he  used  concerning  them. 

I  offer  these  suggestions,  not  as  advocating  here  the  doctrine 
of  infant  baptism,  for  that  is  not  my  subject,  but  principally  to 
show,  by  the  reasonings  applicable  here,  how  the  whole  Chris- 
tian church,  in  passing  to  the  condition  of  a  fixed  institution, 
must  have  been  drawn  to  attend,  more  and  more  to  the  condi- 
tion of  infancy  and  childhood.  Till,  finally,  it  became  the  great 
question,  not  how  to  secure  adult  conversions,  but  how  to  form 
the  rising  race  to  God  ?  As  the  gospel  became  prevalent  in 
any  given  neighborhood,  or  precinct,  then  also  it  was  discov- 
ered that  the  church  was  henceforth  to  be  perpetuated,  mainly 
from  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  church.  And  now  it  was, 
that  every  Christian  child  was  taken  as  a  candidate  for  Chris- 
tian discipleship,  in  his  early  years,  and  enrolled,  as  a  catechu- 
men, to  be  prepared  unto  God.  The  prevalent  idea  was,  as 

history  leaves  us  no  room  to  doubt,  that  children  may  be 
20* 


234       THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

•  trained  up  in  the  family  and  the  church,  by  a  sure  though  im- 
perceptible process,  for  the  godly  life.  Thousands  of  martyrs 
were  thus  trained  and  some  who  confronted  the  tenors  of  mar- 
tyrdom, even  in  their  childish  years. 

And  yet  we  are  seen,  at  this  remote  period,  to  be  resting  our 
principal  hopes  for  the  gospel,  on  adult  conversions.  We  seem 
to  fancy  that  we  do  not  come  to  the  real  spirituality  of  the  gos- 
pel plan,  unless  we  go  back  to  the  first  scenes  of  the  church  and 
draw  our  impressions  thence.  If  preaching  then  was  the  in- 
strument, adult  conversion  the  hope,  so  it  should  be  now. 
Meantime  it  is  well  if  we  are  not  completing  the  analogy,  by 
not  only  training  our  children  for  adult  conversion,  but  also  to 
be  crucifiers  of  Jesus  preparatory  thereto. 

How  great  a  loss  we  are  inflicting  on  our  churches,  under 
these  false  impressions,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  estimate.  Our 
children  grow  up  in  sin,  artificially  averse  to  religion.  Our 
families  are  irresponsible.  Our  piety  itself  is  desiccated,  as  it  is 
undomesticated.  And  whatever  progress  we  make  is  wrought, 
by  methods  that  are  desultory  and  violent,  and  remote  as  pos- 
sible from  all  the  natural  laws  of  character.  In  short,  the  mis- 
chiefs we  suffer  are  too  evident  to  be  suffered  longer.  The 
day  has  come,  when  God  calls  us  to  undertake  a  remedy.  We 
must  so  far  change  our  plan,  as  to  set  Christian  nurture  in  its 
true  place.  We  must  cease  to  regard  adult  conversions,  as 
the  principal  supply  of  the  church,  and  see  if  we  cannot  train 
up  our  children  in  the  ways  of  God.  We  must  insist  on  a  do- 
mestic piety.  We  must  draw  out  the  methods  of  treatment, 
teaching  and  discipline  most  appropriate  to  engage  the  heart 
of  childhood. 

And  in  order  to  the  best  effect,  we  need  also  to  institute  some 
method  of  introducing  baptized  children  to  the  church,  that  is 
distinct  and  peculiar  to  them — such  a  method  as  will  place 
them  in  the  condition  of  candidates,  and  such  as  will  carry  an 
expectation  that  they  will  come  forward,  at  a  suitable  age,  to 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  235 

assume  the  covenant,  into  which  they  have  been  entered  by 
their  parents.  The  first  Puritans,  it  is  well  known,  did  not  de- 
mand of  the  Anglican  church  a  discontinuance  of  confirmation, 
they  only  required  the  removal  of  bishop's  grace  and  other  like 
superstitions,  from  the  rite.  The  Lutheran  and  German  Re- 
formed churches  still  retain  a  rite  of  confirmation.  If  instead 
of  the  form  of  induction,  called  a,  profession,  we  had  a  form  of 
acknowledgement,  or  assumption,  in  which  the  infant  member 
acknowledges  the  initial  membership,  his  parents  gave  him, 
and  assumes  the  vows  of  dedication  for  himself,  in  which  they 
gave  him  to  God,  the  effect  would  unquestionably  be  great. 
Had  our  New  England  fathers  instituted  something  of  this 
kind,  answering  to  their  doctrine  that  the  child,  when  arriving 
at  a  suitable  age  and  giving  proper  evidences  of  Christian 
character,  is  to  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  they  would 
have  given  a  practical  form  to  their  doctrine  of  infant  mem- 
bership and  made  the  rite  of  infant  baptism  a  significant  and 
powerful  instrument  of  good.  Had  they  done  it,  we  should 
never  have  fallen  into  the  mischievous  impressions,  by  which 
we  are  now  turned  aside  from  our  duty,  and  by  force  of  which 
the  prosperity  of  our  churches  is  now  so  deplorably  hindered. 
A  simple  change  of  this  nature,  requiring  no  change  of  opinion, 
but  required  rather,  by  the  opinion  held  by  our  fathers,  and 
theoretically  assented  to  by  us,  (though  practically  lost  out  of 
place  in  our  religious  economy,)  this  simple  change,  connected 
with  a  change  of  view  such  as  I  have  suggested  in  regard  to 
Christian  worship,  would  place  the  Christian  child  in  a  new 
world.  The  faith  of  an  Abiding  Spirit,  too,  dwelling  in  the 
house  and  the  church  would  raise  an  expectation  of  good  for 
him,  in  the  breast  of  godly  parents  and  ministers,  and  encour- 
age him  in  all  good  purposes  and  struggles.  Under  such  a 
regimen,  it  would  be  wonderful,  if  he  came  to  adult  age  as  an 
unbeliever,  or  an  alien  from  the  grace  of  the  gospel. 


236       THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

5.  It  is  becoming  more  important  continually,  as  regards  the 
prosperity  of  religion  in  our  modern  churches,  that  the  type  of 
piety  cultivated  in  them  should  be  catholic  and  as  little  restric- 
ted, or  exclusive  as  possible.  In  their  internal  discipline  and 
also  in  their  external  relations  to  each  other,  the  endeavor 
should  be  to  do  full  honor  to  the  fact,  that  there  is  one  only 
body  of  Christ,  one  catholic  church  in  the  world,  and  this  com- 
posed of  all  who  are  spiritually  united  to  the  Head  and  evidence 
that  union  by  the  fruits  of  godliness.  This  is  THE  CHURCH,  and 
what  we  call  churches  are  only  to  be  regarded  as  voluntary 
fraternities,  monitorial  classes,  so  to  speak,  formed  out  of  the 
one  Christian  body,  for  mutual  watch,  edification  and  commun- 
ion, and  to  maintain,  with  order,  and  effect,  the  appointed 
means  of  grace.  They  may  have  different  localities,  names, 
modes  of  polity  and  worship,  still  they  are  all  within  the  great 
fraternity  of  spiritual  life,  and  therefore  we  have  no  duty  more 
sacred  than  to  acknowledge,  in  all  suitable  ways,  everychurch 
and  person,  who  bears  the  fruits  of  a  believing  and  godly  spirit. 

And  this,  I  say,  is  becoming  more  and  more  important  to  the 
life  of  spiritual  religion.  The  time  was,  when  men  could  heart- 
ily pray  to  God,  that  he  would  sanctify  the  fires  of  purgation, 
in  which  they  burned  the  bodies  of  the  erring.  That  is  possi- 
ble no  more.  Bigotry  is  now  a  more  wilful  sin  and  the  spirit- 
ual curse  it  brings,  as  much  more  desolating  and  fatal  to  the 
character.  For  now  it  must  challenge  the  disrespect  or  even 
the  contempt  of  mankind,  and,  what  is  more,  it  must  repel  and 
disallow  all  that  God  is  doing  in  the  world.  We  may  even 
say,  therefore,  that  we  have  now  come  to  a  time,  when  the  in- 
ternal character  of  a  church  depends,  to  a  very  great  degree, 
on  the  right  fulfilment  of  its  external  relations  to  other  churches. 
For  these  relations  are  now  so  opened,  by  the  fluent  state  of 
modern  society,  that  not  to  feel  them  and  rejoice  in  them  is  a 
crime  that  chills  the  Christian  spirit.  Our  hearts  must  open 
as  the  world  opens,  and  the  disciples  of  every  retired  nook  and 


AND    A   CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  237 

village,  when  they  meet  to  pray,  or  to  speak  of  the  love  of 
Christ  must  find  the  whole  kingdom  of  Jesus  in  their  heart. 

Nor  let  any  one  fancy  that  it  is  enough  to  have  a  spirit  of 
brotherly  love  in  exercise,  such  as  that  which  was  displayed  in 
the  scenes  of  the  pentecost.  To  be  with  one  accord  in  one 
place  is  not  all  we  need.  We  must  be  with  one  accord,  if  pos- 
sible, in  all  places.  Many  persons  will  fly  to  the  praising  of 
Christian  love  (meaning  love  to  their  own  immediate  circle')  to 
excuse  themselves  in  their  bigotry  and  stiffness  against  all  who 
are  not  in  their  creed,  or  number.  There  is  a  difference  be- 
tween love  to  brethren  and  catholicity.  Long  after  the  scene 
of  the  pentecost,  ^|ter  himself  had  need  of  a  special  vision, 
to  show  him  that  Christianity  was  to  be  a  world-religion.  In- 
deed the  full  idea  of  catholicity  could  hardly  be  conceived, 
until  after  the  Christian  intellect,  going  into  a  search  after 
truth,  had  developed  variant  shades  of  opinion,  controversies, 
sects  and  repugnant  organizations.  For,  when  catholicity  is 
developed,  it  is  something  more  than  love— a  higher  will  sub- 
ordinating diversities  of  form  and  thought,  and  moderating 
over  terms  of  partial  conflict,  so  as  to  bring  them  into  a  cordial 
and  fully  acknowledged  brotherhood.  It  is  not  the  infancy  of 
unreflecting  love.  It  is  the  manhood  of  love  rather,  its  reflec- 
tive age,  when  it  has  learned  to  moderate  the  eccentricities  of 
young  opinion,  to  be  less  positive  than  it  was,  before  it  was 
sobered  by  the  wisdom  of  years,  and  as  much  more  compre- 
hensive, in  its  understanding,  as  it  has  learned  to  be  less  con- 
tent with  its  own  measure.  Catholicity  is  partly  a  fruit  of  his- 
tory. To  become  an  earnest  desire,  a  long  and  somewhat  bit- 
ter experience  is  needed,  as  a  preparatory.  To  become  a  fact, 
it  requires  a  very  advanced  state  of  culture  and  mental  enlarge- 
ment, next  a  wide  field  of  history  and  a  world  of  repugnant  at- 
titudes before  it,  as  the  material  of  action,  and  then  it  proceeds 
to  its  results,  by  generalizing,  tracing  agreements  under  forms 
of  disagreement,  finding  coadjutors  in  adversaries,  till  finally 


238       THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

the  conviction  is  matured  that  our  differences  come  of  only  half- 
seeing  in  us  all,  and  that  the  seeing  of  us  all  together  only  con- 
tains the  whole  truth  of  God  and  much  lees  even  than  that. 
And  this  is  catholicity.  Now  we  are  ready  to  acknowledge  a 
brother  in  an  antagonist.  Now  we  ask  what  have  others,  that 
we  need  ourselves  ?  Opinions  sink  into  their  proper  scale  of  es- 
timation, and  the  godly  life,  shining  in  its  Christian  fruits,  rises 
proportionally  higher.  And,  for  this  very  reason,  opinions  be- 
come clearer  and  closer  to  the  truth,  because  they  are  formed 
under  a  better  practice  and  a  more  godly  spirit.  Nor  will  it 
ever  be  found  that  a  truly  catholic  spirit  undervalues  truth.  It 
only  pays  it  higher  homage,  as  being  of  a  ^iture  so  vast  that 
no  man,  or  sect  can  perfectly  contain  it.  The  same  spirit  too, 
which  makes  us  catholic,  makes  us  modest,  and  modesty  is 
the  first  condition  of  successful  study  in  the  truth.  Or,  if  we 
speak  of  purity,  what  harm  is  like  to  follow,  if  a  church,  under  the 
moderating  power  of  a  catholic  spirit,  deems  its  purity  violated 
more,  by  an  unspiritual  or  bad  life,  than  by  a  false  opinion ;  for 
what  is  surer  to  bring  in  false  opinions,  by  system  and  without 
limit,  than  to  hold,  at  the  root  of  all,  an  opinion  so  false  as  to 
Bet  the  creed,  or  the  form  before  the  life — thus  to  cast  out  every 
shade  of  error  and  suffer  patiently  examples  of  practical  mis- 
conduct. And  what  will  God,  in  his  justice,  more  surely  give 
up  to  delusion,  than  the  sanctimonious  bigotry,  which  crucifies 
an  error  and  hugs  a  sin  ?  The  worst  of  all  heretics  is  the  man 
of  a  loose  practice.  And  the  same  rule  of  purity  holds,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  acknowledgement  of  those,  who  belong  to  other 
families  and  sects.  The  best  defence  of  purity  is  never  to 
cast  out  of  a  church,  never  to  withhold  the  acknowledgement 
of  brotherhood,  for  any  kind  of  opinion  which  does  not  destroy 
the  confidence  of  character.  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them. 

These  things  I  say.  not  as  desiring  that  we  hold  our  opinions 
loosely,  not  as  disrespecting  the  past,  not  as  forgetting  that 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  239 

there  are  essential  truths.  All  truths  are  essential,  only  some 
are  essential  for  some  purposes  and  some  for  others.  Some 
truths  are  essential  to  character  and  salvation,  others  to  the 
full  effect  and  perpetuity  of  Christianity  as  an  institution  for  the 
world.  Holding  the  latter  earnestly,  as  formula  necessary  to 
the  comfortable  agreement  and  hearty  co  operation  of  our  own 
particular  fraternity,  we  may  yet  accept  fjeely,  as  members  of 
the  great  brotherhood  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  all  who  produce 
the  fruits  of  righteousness.  And  without  this  catholic  temper- 
ament consciously  cherished,  we  cannot  meet  the  true  condi- 
tions of  Christian  piety  and  progress,  in  this  nineteenth  century. 
A  new  age  has  come,  the  last  act  opens.  Thoughts  and  duties 
never  conceived,  in  the  scenes  of  the  pentecost,  nor  ever,  till 
this  present  hour,  made  necessary  to  the  Christian  life  itself, 
must  come  into  power  and  be  acknowledged.  We  must  now 
begin  to  measure  ourselves,  not  by  ourselves,  but  by  the  king- 
dom of  our  Lord.  As  we  spread  our  aims,  we  must  enlarge 
our  hearts.  Charity  must  encompass  the  whole  brotherhood 
of  the  just,  and  bigotry — the  curse  of  reason,  as  it  is  the  blight  of 
goodness,  the  latest  born  of  the  fall,  the  ugliest  and  absurdest 
shape  that  sin  has  gendered, — must  die. 

I  will  pursue  the  subject  no  farther.  My  object  has  been, 
you  will  perceive,  not  to  fill  out  a  complete  picture  of  the  meth- 
ods and  instruments,  by  which  a  modern  Christian  church  is  to 
grow  and  extend  its  power.  It  has  rather  been  to  select  some 
points,  where  we  seem  to  have  drawn  impressions  from  the 
scene  of  the  pentecost,  with  too  little  caution,  or  too  little  con- 
sideration of  the  difference  between  that  scene  and  the  working 
of  Christian  piety,  in  a  modern  congregation  or  parish.  Hav- 
ing done  this,  it  remains  for  you  to  complete  the  picture,  by 
adding  all  our  accepted  methods  of  proceeding,  which  do  not 
require  to  be  modified,  by  the  views  offered. 

It  will  be  seen,  in  general,  that  I  have  sketched  a  view  or  type 
of  Christian  piety,  which  expects  to  be  less  desultory — which 


240       THE  SCENE  OF  THE  PENTECOST, 

rests  the  power  of  religion  less  on  occasions  and  less  on  adult 
conversions,  more  on  godly  living  and  a  method  of  progress 
that  is  constant,  imperceptible  and  resembled  to  a  process  of 
growth. 

If  it  should  be  apprehended,  by  any,  that  such  a  type  of  piety, 
received  in  our  churches,  will  prepare  a  descent  towards  for- 
malism, I  think  they  may  quiet  their  apprehensions  without 
difficulty,  and  even  replace  them  by  an  assured  confidence  of 
higher  spirituality,  and  a  more  earnest  devotion  to  the  godly 
life.  It  will  be  seen,  at  a  glance,  that  the  view  presented  con- 
tains no  one  of  the  elements,  that  have  heretofore  entered  into 
the  historic  examples  of  formalism.  You  are  to  have  no  priest 
standing  between  you  and  God,  to  transact  your  religion  for 
you.  You  will  have  no  prerogative  grace,  to  descend  upon 
you,  or  be  dispensed  to  you,  in  sacraments.  Baptism  will  not 
be  a  rite  of  Christian  magic.  The  Lord's  Supper  will  not  be  a 
substantiated  Christ,  offered  to  unbelief  as  the  bread  of  life;  but 
it  will  be  a  spiritual  Christ,  to  be  spiritually  discerned.  To  be 
in  the  church  is  not  to  be  a  disciple,  or  to  have  a  title,  of  any 
kind,  to  salvation.  No  formula  of  absolution  removes  your 
sins.  To  be  buried  as  a  saint  will  not  be  the  comforting  hope 
and  solace  of  an  ungodly  life.  Not  one  of  the  elements,  by 
which  the  historic  examples  of  formalism  have  been  construct- 
ed, is  here  present.  If  (in  what  I  have  offered  simply  as  a 
suggestion,)  I  have  given  some  countenance  to  a  rite,  or  form 
partially  resembled  to  confirmation,  I  have  not  proposed,  for 
subjects,  those  who  can  say  the  Lord's  prayer  and  the  ten  com- 
mandments, nor  pledged  to  them,  under  the  same,  any  grace 
which  may  be  substituted  for  the  want  of  a  gracious  spirit.  I 
have  only  sought  to  fulfil  the  doctrine  held  by  our  fathers,  to 
raise  a  religious  expectation  fbr  childhood  and  youth  and  call 
them,  as  soon  as  they  come  to  a  suitable  age  and  give  evidence 
of  their  love  to  God,  to  acknowledge  that  love  and  assume  the 
vows  made  by  their  parents.  Meantime  the  parents  them- 
selves, not  allowed  to  repose  on  a  sacramental  grace,  or  to 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH.  241 

quiet  themselves  in  any  positive  efforts,  however  urgent,  to  in- 
doctrinate, or  persuade  their  children  to  what  is  good,  are  re- 
quired to  believe  that  nothing  can  discharge  their  duty,  but  to 
make  religion  a  domestic  spirit  in  the  house.  On  this,  all  ra- 
tional hope  of  success  depends.  There  is  no  substitute  for  this. 
And  so  they  are  held,  by  the  most  cogent  of  all  motives,  to  a 
life  of  prayer,  a  careful  and  godly  watch  of  their  own  spirit,  a 
religious  adjustment  of  their  plans,  and  thus,  to  a  perpetual 
growth  of  spiritual  character,  by  direct  and  daily  communion 
with  God. 

Still  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  is  danger  of  formalism, 
under  this,  as  under  every  type  of  piety.  Nor  can  we  ever  be 
too  fully  awake  to  this  danger.  History  has  shown  us  that 
even  Quakerism  may  sink  into  a  dead  formality.  And  so  must 
every  type  of  religion,  when  it  loses  the  element  of  spiritual 
life.  The  very  evil  that  I  am  now  seeking  to  remedy,  is  pre- 
cisely this— a  want  of  the  godly  habit  and  of  that  deep  spiritual 
exercise,  which  only  can  suffice  to  carry  on  a  work  of  thorough 
sanctification,  in  the  Christian  body.  We  are,  at  this  very 
moment,  as  deep  in  the  spirit  of  formalism,  as  we  can  be,  with- 
out receiving  it  theoretically,  as  a  religion.  Revivals  them- 
selves have  sunk  into  a  formality,  and  what  is  even  more  singu- 
lar, conversions  also.  Precisely  this  is  what  every  intelligent 
minister  feels,  though  he  may  not  name  what  he  deplores,  in 
this  manner.  What  is  it  but  another  kind  of  formalism,  to  look 
upon  a  revival  of  religion,  as  the  only  hopeful  instrument  of 
good,  the  only  supposable  state  of  godly  living  ?  Nor  is  it  any 
thing  different,  if  conversions  are  accepted,  as  equivalent  to 
Christian  character,  and  the  technical  evidences  of  conversion, 
as  the  title  deed  of  salvation.  A  very  slight  perusal  of  our 
present  type  of  religion  will  show  how  little  efficacy  it  has,  or 
can  have,  to  exercise  a  soul  deeply  in  spiritual  things,  or  to 
produce  a  thorough  sanctification  of  character.  It  will  be  seen 
that  our  religion  revolves,  practically  speaking,  about  two  sin- 
21 


242  THE    SCENE    OP   THE    PENTECOST, 

gle  points.  First,  every  man  is  to  be  converted.  Secondly,  he 
is  to  concern  himself  about  the  conversion  of  others.  Or,  if 
this  be  not  a  literal  and  complete  truth,  you  will  see  what  I 
mean  by  the  statement.  The  Christian  mind  is  thus  with- 
drawn, to  a  mournful  extent,  from  all  bosom  struggles  and  a 
careful  chastening  of  the  spirit,  before  God.  We  are  not  so 
much  responsible  to  be  godly,  as  to  be  useful !  We  do  not  ques- 
tion so  much  how  we  may  subdue  sin  within  ourselves,  as  how 
we  may  enlarge  the  roll  of  converts  !  We  seldom  tremble  be- 
fore God,  under  the  gloomy  terrors  that  rise  up  in  our  faithless 
hearts.  When  we  pray,  it  is  not  so  much  that  we  may  come 
unto  God,  for  His  own  sake,  as  that  we  may  use  a  profitable 
expedient!  Prayer  is  a  convenience  to  the  execution  of  our  de- 
signs upon  others.  Then,  if  we  decline  from  God  and  sink  into 
a  worldly  spirit,  as  we  are  like  to  do,  when  there  is  no  public 
harvest  time  of  conversion  to  encourage  us,  or  make  our  piety 
a  means  to  this  end,  it  will  be  observed  that  all  remonstrances 
and  reproofs  are  taken  in  a  sense  that  robs  them  of  their  power. 
The  wrong  is  admitted  and  deplored,  but  deplored,  you  will  dis- 
cover, on  account  of  the  loss  that  is  suffered  by  the  unconvert- 
ed !  And  then,  if  new  purposes  of  return  to  God  are  formed, 
the  Christian  minister  will  be  mortified  and  saddened  by  the 
discovery,  that  the  real  motive  for  so  doing  is  found,  in  what 
may  be  the  result  to  the  public  ! — the  conversions  that  may  fol- 
low, the  scenes  of  public  effect  that  will  gladden  the  heart — not 
in  what  is  due  to  God  himself  and  the  restoration  of  the  un- 
faithful soul  to  His  love  arid  communion. 

The  shallowness  of  such  a  style  of  piety  is  too  evident  and 
facts  answer,  with  deplorable  exactness,  to  what  our  analysis 
of  causes  discovers.  We  make  the  faith  of  God  of  none  effect. 
At  certain  points  we  have  aglimmer,  il'I  should  not  rather  say 
a  blaze,  of  spirituality.  But  we  have  no  spiritual  habit.  The 
grace  of  the  spirit  is  exhausted,  by  our  religious  occasions,  and 
between  these,  we  sink  into  ourselves,  to  wait  until  the  gale 


AND    A    CHRISTIAN    PARISH,  243 

returns.  Now  and  then,  we  have  a  disciple  who,  against  all 
the  power  of  social  causes  round  him,  adheres  to  God  and 
proves  his  faithfulness,  as  a  soldier,  fighting  on  by  himself.  But 
apart  from  such  examples,  our  piety  consists  in  a  series  of  re- 
conversions, or  salient  starts  out  of  lethargy  and  dreams. 
There  is  no  Christian  continuity,  no  spiritual  habit,  no  strong 
warfare  that  shakes  the  soul  in  a  conflict  of  years,  and  finally 
crowns  it  as  a  spiritual  victor  and  hero. 

In  proposing,  therefore,  a  different  type  of  piety,  I  do  it  in  the 
confidence  that  nothing  else  can  reclaim  us  from  the  formalism, 
which  has  so  deplorably  unspiritualized  our  churches.  We  can 
never  have  any  depth  in  our  piety,  it  can  never  do  more  than  to 
ruffle,  occasionally,  the  surfacetof  our  experience,  until  we  unite 
other  thoughts.  I  ask  not  for  a  discontinuance  of  revivals.  I  only 
disallow  the  crude  and  undigested  opinion  of  revivals,  under 
which  they  have  sunk  into  a  formality,  and  become  discourage- 
ments even  to  a  life  of  godliness.  I  insist  on  the  truth  of  an  Abi- 
ding Spirit,  as  being  somewhat  more  than  a  theoretic  entity — 
such  a  grace  that  the  church  may  live  and  grow,  in  the  divine 
life,  at  all  times.  God  knows  how  to  dispense  His  gifts  and  He 
will  lead  us  on,  through  every  scene,  necessary  to  our  growth. 
And  what  He  gives  us  it  is  ours  to  receive,  not  to  prescribe. 

Holding  this  fundamental  truth,  I  then  provide  scope  for  it,  in 
the  practical  life.  I  call  you  hither,  one  and  all,  without  excep- 
tion, to  worship.  I  lay  it  upon  every  one  to  become  an  earnest 
disciple  of  the  truth ;  to  receive  it  in  the  Spirit,  and  by  the 
Spirit  apply  it  to  his  life.  I  enjoin  it  upon  all,  who  will  be 
saved,  to  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  seek  for  immortality  by 
patient  continuance  in  well  doing.  They  are  to  make  their 
whole  life  a  refining  process,  under  God,  as  the  refining  of  sil- 
ver,— to  purify  themselves,  even  as  Christ  is  pure.  Every  fam- 
ily is  to  be  a  temple  of  the  Spirit  and  Christian  piety  a  domestic 
element.  Having  great  works  on  hand,  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  world,  our  children  are  to  be  brought  up  in  the  mission- 


244       THE  SCENE  OP  THE  PENTECOST. 

ary  spirit,  which  is  the  spirit  of  Christ  himself,  to  have  their 
earliest  love  identified  with  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  blessing 
of  the  world  for  his  sake.  Our  piety  we  are  to  measure,  not  by 
our  occasional  frames,  or  our  accepted  formulas,  but  by  our 
fruits.  We  are  to  deny  ourselves.  We  are  to  live  by  faith.  We 
are  to  make  our  business  a  part  of  our  religion,  and  the  right 
conduct  of  it  a  Christian  attainment.  No  false  conservatism, 
bowing  to  ancient  practice,  is  to  sanctify  a  wrong,  or  excuse  a 
hurtful  pleasure ;  for  we  are  to  live,  not  by  any  human  fashion 
but  following  after  Christ  in  whom  we  hope ;  we  are  to  be  mer- 
ciful as  he  was  merciful,  pure  as  he  was  pure,  and  have  it  for 
our  meat  and  drink  to  do  the  will  of  God. 

Such  is  the  practical  aim,  which  the  view  I  now  offer  you  is 
designed  to  realize.  It  lays  a  foundation  for  better  Christian 
attainments  and  a  higher  form  of  godliness.  In  this  confidence, 
I  offer  it  to  your  consideration,  being  perfectly  assured  that,  if 
such  a  view  were  accepted,  you  would  find  every  fruit  of  right- 
eousness multiplied  among  you,  and  rejoice  in  the  perpetual 
evidence,  that  the  smile  of  God  is  upon  you,  as  a  people.  The 
barren  years  and  even  barren  conversions  that  we  now  deplore, 
will  afflict  us  no  more.  Religion,  piety  to  God  will  sweeten  all 
the  years  and  hours  and  scenes  of  life.  Our  children  will  be 
found  travelling  with  us  heavenward  by  our  side.  We  shall 
grow  in  character.  The  church  will  multiply  in  numbers. 
Cheerfulness  will  crown  our  worship,  a  sense  of  Christian  pro- 
gress will  fortify  our  good  purposes,  and  the  fruits  of  love,  scat- 
tered along  our  path,  will  be  acknowledged,  as  proofs  that  God 
is  ever  with  us. 


NOTE. 

Pages  89  and  120. 


THB  two  paragraphs  connected,  by  reference,  with  this  note,  I  designed,  in  the 
republication,  to  omit,  for  probably  I  had  as  little  pleasure  in  them  as  the  sub- 
jects themselves,  and  in  passing  to  a  more  permanent  form,  matter  not  strictly 
belonging  to  the  subject,  seemed  less  appropriate.  But  the  author  of  the  '  Letter' 
having  seen  fit  to  publish,  in  several  religious  newspapers,  a  communication 
proposing  to  impugn  the  verity  of  what  I  have  here  said,  I  am  not  left  to  my 
choice .  The  two  paragraphs  cannot  be  discontinued  without  subjecting  myself 
to  a  false  implication. 

I  have  a  great  reluctance  to  say  any  thing  more  in  reference  to  a  subject  so 
unpleasant,  and  in  connection,  especially,  with  a  book  that  is  occupied  with 
themes  of  a  character  so  remote.  But  the  very  singular  outrage  I  have  suffered, 
in  connection  with  these  discussions,  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  question  and 
cannot  be  separated  from  it.  1  trust  therefore,  the  public  will  consider  what  is 
extraordinary  in  the  case,  and  allow  me,  as  the  subject  of  this  outrage,  and  since 
it  must  be  a  matter  of  history,  to  add  a  brief  statement  that  will  make  the  history 
intelligible.  For,  as  yet,  it  is  not  understood  by  the  public.  They  have  seen 
the  Publishing  Committee  of  the  Massachusetts  Sabbath  School  Society  submitting 
to  the  very  odious  and  extreme  measure  of  suspending  a  book,  contrary  to  their 
own  deliberate  and  unanimous  judgment  of  its  merits  ;  they  have  noticed  the  sin- 
gular disproportion  between  a  result  so  remarkable  and  the  power  of  the  '  Letter' 
by  which  it  was  brought  to  pass,  and  they  have  not  been  able  to  understand  the 
marvellous  facility  of  a  numerous  and  respectable  committee,  in  yielding,  so 
tamely,  to  causes  of  so  slender  a  quality.  Whereas  this  committee,  as  I  perfectly 
understand,  had  all  the  mischievous  rumors  and  malicious  misconstructions, 
which  had  been  at  work  at  me,  for  ten  years,  rained  upon  them,  in  effect,  in  a 
single  shower,  and  it  was  a  deluge  they  could  not  support.  I  made  some  hints 
to  this  effect  in  my '  Argument,'  as  an  act  of  justice  to  the  Committee,  but  I  learn 
that  some  persons  have  blamed  me,  for  the  exercise  of  an  undue  severity,  in  what 
I  have  said  to  direct  the  public  feeling  to  its  proper  mark.  If  so,  it  is  because  I 
was  too  lenient,  or  too  fastidious  to  open  the  bundle  of  facts  I  had  in  possession. 
Endeavoring  to  say  as  little  as  would  answer  the  righteous  purpose  I  had  in 
view,  1  said  too  little — a  defect  which  I  am  now  constrained  to  supply. 

I  am  charged,  by  the  author  of  the  '  Letter,"  in  his  late  communication,  with 
having  put  forth  as  many  as  ten  distinct  and  "  gross  misrepresentations,"  in  what 

21* 


246  NOTE. 

I  have  said  of  his  institution.  Some  of  these  relate  to  matters  that  lie  in  con- 
struction, or  in  general  repute,  and  these  it  will  be  more  respectful  to  the  public  to 
submit,  without  remark,  to  their  judgment.  Two  or  three  relate  to  matters  of 
fact,  but  of  so  trivial  a  nature,  as  scarcely  to  justify  serious  attention.  I  will 
barely  notice  them,  in  passing,  that  the  public  may  see,  whether  I  am  likely  to  ad- 
vance assertions  without  consideration,  or  not. 

First  he  charges  upon  me  the  grievous  error  of  saying  that  he  and  his  fellow 
Professors  are  "  sworn  every  six  months."  I  was  so  informed,  but  it  now  ap- 
pears that  I  should  have  said  '  once  a  year.'  Meantime  we  are  also  informed 
'hat  all  the  "  Trustees"  are  subject  to  the  same  conditions  ;  and  I  hope  the  pub- 
lic will  accept  this  additional  number  of  persons,  as  a  compensation  for  the  lack 
of  swearing,  that  accrues,  by  an  extension  of  the  time. 

He  also  affirms  that  the  number  of  students  in  the  seminary  has  always  "  ex- 
ceeded the  highest  number  specified"  by  me,  viz.  fifteen.  I  endeavored,  for 
three  or  four  weeks,  to  ascertain  the  number  correctly,  but  could  get  hold  of  noth- 
ing more  exact  than  a  general  rumor,  which  placed  the  number  at  twelve,  and  to 
be  on  the  safe  side,  I  added,  possibly  three  more.  Now  the  Professor  does  not 
venture  to  say  himself,  how  many  there  are,  and  if  there  should  happen  to  be  one 
more,  viz.  sixteen,  it  would  hardly  convict  me  of  a  very  "  gross  misrepresenta- 
tion." I  only  add  that  there  are  various  ways,  well  understood,  of  swelling  the 
catalogue  of  such  bodies,  and  that  I  was  informed,  the  very  day  after  my  '  Argu- 
ment' was  published,  that  there  were  exactly  eleven  students  then  on  the  ground. 
I  said  that  "  one  or  two  ministers  are  called  off  from  their  charge,  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  time,  to  collect  funds  for  the  institution," — this  is  another  of  my 
"  gross  misrepresentations."  The  Professor  recollects  but  "  one,"  who  has  been 
"  engaged  only  sixteen,  or  eighteen  months."  I  have  some  reason  to  recollect 
another,  inasmuch  as  my  experience  of  the  seminary  dates  from  him.  Coming 
to  Hartford,  shortly  after  my  settlement  here,  he  took  up  an  absurd  story,  in  re 
gard  to  one  of  my  sermons,  and  was  busily  active  for  months,  in  retailing  it 
through  the  eastern  part  of  the  State — holding  me  up  to  the  churches,  as  an  ex- 
ample of  the  horrible  effects  of  the  New  Haven  heresies.  I  remember,  also,  an- 
other who  was  devoted  to  the  same  work  for  a  length  of  time,  though  I  am  not 
quite  positive  whether  it  was  before  he  relinquished  his  charge,  or  after.  If  each 
of  these  also  was  engaged  for  eighteen  months,  we  appear  to  have  "  one  or  two 
ministers"  engaged,  in  all,  four  years  and  a  half  out  of  thirteen,  which  is  some- 
thing like  "  a  considerable  part  of  the  time." 

We  come  to  matters  more  serious.  As  regards  "  meddling"  with  the  churches, 
to  deny  it  looks  very  much  like  a  denial  that  the  institution  has  fulfilled  its  objects. 
Was  it  not  designed,  in  part,  to  watch  over  them,  to  winnow  out  their  heresies, 
to  condole  with  the  afflicted  people  when  sighing  to  be  eased  of  their  erring  pas- 
tors, and  then,  when  they  are  gone,  to  push  forward  just  the  man  who  is  wanted  ? 
And  does  any  one  who  understands  the  working  of  men,  expect  that  all  this  will 
be  done  so  delicately  and  with  such  perfect  consideration,  as  not  to  involve  the 
certainty  of  a  "  meddling"  transaction,  whenever  there  is  anything  to  be  gained  by 
it  7  There  are  facts  too,  within  my  knowledge,  which,  if  they  were  related,  would 


NOTE.  247 

deeply  move  the  indignation  of  the  public.  But  this  would  carry  me  too  far. 
Only  let  it  be  observed,  how  this  machinery  has  been  working,  in  my  own  case, 
and  take  that  as  an  example. 

I  said  that  this  institution  had  acted  the  "  part  of  a  scavenger  to  a  Baptist  pa- 
per, in  an  assault  upon  me,"  and  that  the  "Letter"  was  the  "third  or  fourth  pub- 
lic attack"  I  have  suffered  from  the  same  quarter.  The  language  is  severe,  but  I 
think  I  understood  its  meaning.  As  the  author  of  the  '  Letter'  complains  of  it,  and 
also  that  I  have  fallen  upon  his  institution  and  not  upon  himself,  I  will  offer  to  the 
public,  now,  a  calm  and  dispassionate  statement  of  facts,  that  will  show,  whether 
I  am  to  be  justified  or  not. 

How  the  institution  began  to  meddle  with  me,  as  soon  as  it  began  to  exist,  nay 
before  a  brick  was  laid,  has  just  been  stated.  It  will  also  be  considered  that  a 
young  minister,  who  has  yet  no  public  character  and  but  a  slight  hold  of  his  peo- 
ple, may  often  be  dislodged  from  his  place,  by  only  a  few  such  efforts  of  perversity 
and  mischief. 

There  is  also  a  certain  public  man,  so  intimately  associated  with  this  insti- 
tution as  a  founder,  a  patron,  a  partizan,  and  a  Trustee,  that  his  face  suggests  it 
wherever  he  goes,  an  honest  and  good  man,  as  I  verily  believe,  but  one  whose 
most  extraordinary  gifts  are  in  his  will,  and  who  is  so  bedded,  withal,  in  his  tradi- 
tions and  formulas,  that  he  cannot  take  the  import  of  any  other— -one  who  has 
had  ample  opportunity,  as  the  public  know,  to  be  acquainted  with  my  sentiments 
and  has  long  been  forward,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  give  his  representa- 
tions of  my  errors  and  heresies.  He  has  done  it  in  the  east  and  the  west,  in  stages 
and  steamboats,  at  public  tables  and  anniversaries.  Scarcely  a  month  has  passed, 
for  the  last  ten  years,  in  which  some  representation  of  his  has  not  come  back  to 
me,  and  I  am  yet  to  hear  the  first  that  approaches  a  just  representation  of  any 
opinion,  which  I  ever  advanced.  Meantime  I  have  apologized  for  his  apparent 
obliquities  and  allowed  myself  to  be  on  good  terms  with  him,  as  I  hope  I  may 
be  hereafter — though  1  should  like  to  have  the  public  qualify  his  representations, 
as  if  they  knew  we  were  enemies.  Whether  the  Professor's  seminary  has  been 
accustomed  to  accept  these  extravaganzas  of  prejudice  and  become  itself  their 
vehicle,  may  be  judged,  when  we  discover  the  Professor  himself  reporting  the 
opinion  of  "  members  of  my  own  church"  against  me. 

Four  years  since,  I  delivered  an  address  before  the  Alumni  of  Yale  College,  which 
was  published.  This  was  reviewed  in  a  pamphlet  by  "  Catholicus,"  convicting  me 
of  Hobbesism  and  Humeism  and  Socinianism,  and  I  have  forgotten  what  beside.  As 
it  had  been  hinted  by  the  Religious  Herald  of  this  city,  that  I  might  reply,  and  having 
it  for  a  maxim  never  to  meddle  with  an  adversary  who  is  unequal  to  the  subject 
in  question,  I  published  a  brief  note  in  the  pappr  above  named,  assentiiig  to  all  the 
main  positions  avowed  by  "  Catholicus"  himself,  and  hinting,  rather  mirthfully, 
that  he  might  be  one  of  the  church  "  owls"  spoken  of  in  the  '  Address,'  who  had 
now  lighted  upon  me,  I  declined  any  further  notice  of  his  very  absurd  effusion. 
Shortly  after,  a  communication  appeared  in  a  certain  religious  paper  in  Boston, 
condoling  with  "Catholicus,"  complaining,  in  querulous  airs,  of  the  slight  I  had 
put  upon  him,  and  virtually  reiterating  his  charges.  Who  might  be  the  author 


248  NOTE. 

of  the  communication  I  did  not  inquire ;  for  I  felt  the  force  of  it  too  little,  to 
have  my  curiosity  excited,  I  only  recollect  judging,  at  the  time,  that  if  the  writer 
was  one  of  our  own  church,  who  had  kept  back  his  dissatisfaction  with  the 
"  Address"  till  now,  when  he  might  strengthen  himself  by  an  Episcopal  sympa- 
thy ;  (for  Catholicus  had  no  object  but  to  call  away  the  attention  of  the  public, 
from  what  I  was  just  then  doing  to  vindicate  our  church  from  the  insulting 
"Charge"  of  the  Bishop  of  Connecticut,)  he  was  well  enough  estimated  by  his 
perfidy.  To  do  this,  at  such  a  time,  even  if  I  had  erred  in  some  respects,  he 
must  yet  be  a  man  whose  enmity,  or  whose  ends  were  low  enough  to  insti- 
gate a  treason.  But  one  of  my  friends,  mistrusting  some  ill  effects  from  the  com- 
munication, advised  me,  a  few  weeks  after,  to  answer  it.  This  I  declined.  He 
afterwards  volunteered  to  do  it  himself,  and  read  me  his  article.  It  was  a  calm, 
philosophic  exposition,  worthy  of  his  eminent  abilities  as  one  of  the  first  writers 
in  the  country.  Nevertheless,  it  was  sent  back  to  him,  by  the  paper,  in  which 
the  communication  appeared,  and  he  was  informed  that  it  could  not  be  published, 
because  it  was  personal !  That  is,  the  character  of  a  real  living  person  could 
not  be  vindicated,  by  a  calm  argument,  lest  the  cast  iron  personality  of  a  press 
and  the  anonymous  personality  of  one  of  its  contributors  should  suffer !  The 
author  of  the  "  Letter"  now  avows  himself,  as  the  author  of  the  communication 
Let  the  public  also  know  that  the  paper  in  question  is  under  an  implied,  if  not 
express  contract,  of  mutual  aid  with  his  institution — subject  thus  to  its  dictation 
and  that,  to  such  a  degree  that  members  in  the  concern,  have  more  than  once 
been  moved  to  escape,  by  withdrawing  from  it. 

A  few  weeks  later,  the  Baptist  paper  of  this  city  drew  itself  unwittingly,  as  I 
believe,  into  a  dispute  about  the  "Address,"  when  becoming  exasperated,  it 
made  issue  before  the  public,  on  the  question  of  my  reputation  for  orthodoxy- 
And  here  it  gathered  up  for  its  proofs,  the  pamphlet  of  "  Catholicus,"  and  the  Pro- 
fessor's "  Conimmunication,"  together  with  a  mass  of  rumors  floating  in  distant 
places,  all  traceable  to  the  industrious  causes  above  named.  I  was  silent,  of 
course,  but  my  friend  of  the  Religious  Herald  was  not,  and  among  other  things 
he  hinted,  I  believe,  the  suspicion  of  a  conspiracy.  And  now  the  anonymous 
writer  of  Boston,  jealous  for  his  anonymous  character,  and  not  regarding  the  fact 
that  the  question  agitated  referred,  not  to  the  errors,  but  to  the  reputation  of  a 
brother  minister,  reappears  in  Connecticut,  addressing  a  reply  to  the  Herald,  and 
disclosing,  by  his  post  mark  and  handwriting,  who  he  might  be.  The  Editor,  for 
reasons  of  his  own,  but  probably  regarding  the  manifest  indecency  of  allowing 
an  anonymous  writer  to  propagate  his  mischief,  when  nothing  was  in  issue,  but 
the  success  of  slander,  published  only  a  part  of  his  communication.  That  was 
a  grievance  too  great  to  be  borne,  and  he  tells  us  now  how  he  felt,  as  an  injured 
man,  that  "  he  had  a  right  to  be  heard  in  his  own  defence" !  So  he  added  a 
preface  to  his  article,  just  as  long  as  the  article  itself,  telling  how  he  was 
"grieved  and  mortified"  on  account  of  my  treatment  of  "Catholicus"  and 
appealing  to  the  judgment  of  my  own  people  against  me,  flew  to  the  aid  of  the 
Baptist  paper,  as  before  he  had  done  to  the  aid  of  my  Episcopal  adversaries,  and 
there  completed  what  he  now  calls  his  "  defence." 


NOTE.  249 

I  said  that  he  had  acted  the  part  of  a  scavenger,  and  now  I  put  it  boldly  to 
the  public  whether  the  language  is  not  justified?  Consider,  (1,)  that  the  Baptist 
paper  was  engaged  in  discussing,  not  my  merits,  but  my  reputation,  a  case,  mani- 
festly, where  none  but  an  enemy,  certainly  no  fellow  minister,  should  lend  his  aid 
under  whatever  pretext.  2.  Consider  what  kind  of  aid  he  contributed — not  en- 
deavoring to  expose  the  errors  of  my  "  Address,"  but  retailing  adverse  impres- 
sions concerning  me  and  it  and  stating.  In  particular,  ihatitwas  disapproved  "by 
not  a  few  distinguished  clergymen  and  even  by  some  among  the  members  of  my  own 
church."  So  that  here  we  have  a  Christian  minister,  the  Professor  of  a  Theo- 
logical seminary,  not  only  assisting  an  adversary  of  another  connection,  by  con_ 
tributing  opinions  adverse  to  the  reputation  of  a  fellow  minister,  but  even  descend- 
ing to  the  ignoble  office  of  arraying  his  own  church  against  him  and  strengthen- 
ing, by  a  publication  of  their  opinions,  whatever  apprehensions  any  among  them 
might  feel !  Many  a  minister  would  be  dislodged  from  his  place,  by  an  act  of 
interference  not  more  indecent.  And  then,  (3,)  what  is  the  pretext  he  now  alleges 
in  self  vindication  7  He  was  compelled  to  this,  he  says,  to  make  out  his  "  own 
defence."  He  who  now  complains  that  I  am  over  "  sensitive,"  because,  after 
long  years  of  silence,  I  have,  at  last,  spoken  somewhat  severely,  says  the  editor 
of  the  Herald  had  "  accused  me,"  Sec.,  and  takes  it  as  a  grievance  that  he  could 
not  have  every  word  printed !  In  all  of  which  he  disguises,  most  disingenuously 
as  I  think,  the  fact  that  he  was  unknown.  I  do  not  complain  that  he  writes 
anonymously,  but  it  is  asking  rather  too  much,  to  require  that  he  be  allowed,  at 
the  same  time,  the  benefit  of  publicity  !  Anonymous  persons  have  no  charac- 
ter, lest  of  all  any  such  character  as  may  be  saved  at  the  expense  of  a  real  per- 
son, a  living  Christian  minister.  Besides,  it  was  not  a  work  of  defence,  but  the 
busy  enmity  of  a  scavenger  to  contribute  to  an  adversary,  who  had  no  purpose 
on  hand  but  to  blacken  my  reputation,  adverse  rumors  and  opinions,  and  even  to 
exasperate,  by  a  public  approval,  the  dissatisfaction  of  my  own  people.  If  such 
conduct  as  this  can  be  justified,  decency  is  at  an  end  ! 

On  this  footing  we  stood,  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  discussion.  It 
is  some  proof  of  my  good  nature,  I  think,  that  I  had  never  broken  with  the  author 
of  the  '  Letter'  or  his  friends.  During  ten  years  of  busy  scandal,  I  had  remained 
silent,  acting  on  the  faith  that  integrity  and  truth  will,  at  last,  vindicate  them- 
selves, and  making  generous  allowances  for  the  fact  that  any  man  who  dares  to 
think  his  own  thoughts,  is  likely,  at  first,  to  be  misunderstood  and  to  create  ap- 
prehensions that  time  will  finally  quiet.  At  length  the  'Letter'  came.  The 
Professor's  paper  in  Boston  responded,  of  course,  in  a  lit  echo.  Next  I  heard 
that  a  very  near  friend  of  his,  in  Boston,  as  soon  as  the '  Letter'  arrived,  went  be- 
fore the  Sabbath  School  Society,  with  which  he  is  somehow  connected,  present- 
ed a  written  protest  against  my  '  Discourses'  and  made  a  peremptory  demand  that 
it  should  be  recorded !  1  saw,  at  once,  the  family  connection  between  the  pro- 
test and  the  letter,  but  while  I  was  amusing  myself  with  the  very  absurd  figure 
of  both,  I  was  surprised  to  hear  that  this  and  other  violent  demonstrations  of  tho. 


250  NOTE. 

kind,  working  on  the  apprehensions  of  the  public,  had  actually  driven  the  com- 
mittee to  the  suspension  of  my  book  !* 

Nor  let  any  one  imagine  that  this  singular  result  was  produced  by  any  intel- 
lectual exposition  of  my  errors,  or  by  any  cause  more  dignified  than  mischief.  I 
saw  at  once  how  it  was  brought  to  pass.  It  was  possible  only  in  virtue  of  that 
absurd  gossip  and  anonymous  misconstruction,  which  had  been  at  work  for 
ten  years,  to  poison  the  confidence  of  the  public  in  my  character.  I  meditated, 
for  a  week  or  two,  on  the  question  what  should  be  done  7  It  grew  clear  to  me 
that  there  is  a  limit  even  to  righteous  forbearance.  I  recollected  that  others,  who 
are  younger  than  I  and  less  firmly  established,  complain  of  similar  annoyances, 
and  I  felt  that  something  was  due  to  them.  I  believed  that  I  had  a  call  from  God 
to  do  an  act  of  justice  !  I  have  done  it. 

If  I  have  not  answered  the  Professor's  '  Letter'  it  is  because  there  was  really 
nothing  in  it  to  answer.  When  a  man  comes  before  the  public  to  assail  another, 
without  taking  some  degree  of  pains  to  be  master  of  the  subject  and  the  meaning 
of  what  he  assails,  he  is  not  entitled  to  an  answer.  Besides,  the  gross  outrage  I 
have  suffered,  and  which,  through  me,  has  been  felt  by  the  churches,  was  due  to 
the  '  Letter,'  not  as  an  instrument  of  reason,  but  of  mischief  rather ;  for  if  any 
one  imagines  that  it  has  been  circulated  gratuitously,  all  over  New  England,  out 
of  simple  concern  for  the  truth,  violated  in  a  book  scarcely  known,  at  the  time,  to 
the  public,  he  must  have  a  copious  charity.  There  had  been  a  long  preparation, 
many  persons  and  agencies  had  been  at  work,  and  a  host  of  industrious  causes, 

*  It  may  be  due  to  the  Committee,  especially  as  an  expression,  in  my  Preface, 
indicates  that  I  am  ignorant  of  any  farther  action,  on  their  part,  subsequent  to 
the  suspension,  to  say  that,  since  the  Preface  was  printed  and  just  as  my  book  is 
leaving  the  press,  I  have  received  notice  from  them  of  an  unconditional  surrender 
of  the  copy  right  to  me.  I  hope  they  will  not  think  it  unkind  in  me,  if  I  decline 
accepting  it  Having  really  no  use  for  it,  I  prefer  that  the  property  should  remain 
in  their  hands,  indulging  the  hope  that  I  may  sometime  have  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing,  in  the  issue  of  a  new  edition,  that  they  have  recovered  their  liberty. 
Meanwhile  I  acquit  them  of  all  serious  blame,  in  doing  what  they  must,  to  pacify 
the  clamors  of  prejudice.  I  only  hope  they  have  not  sanctioned  a  representation, 
just  now  offered  to  the  public,  in  which  it  is  made  to  appear  that  my  manuscript 
was  purged  of  important  errors,  and  essentially  modified  under  their  direction. 
This  I  should  regret,  both  because  it  makes  their  case,  in  suspending  the  book, 
worse  than  it  was  before,  and  because  it  is  not  true.  Not  one  sentiment,  in  the 
manuscript,  was  omitted,  nor  one  new  sentiment  added,  in  the  '  Discourses'  as 
published  by  the  Committee.  The  only  alterations  made  were  these.  Two  par- 
agraphs of  ten  or  fifteen  lines  each,  were  added,  one  to  develop  more  formally 
the  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  influence,  the  other  to  qualify  more  at  large  what  was 
said  in  respect  to  revivals.  Besides  these,  having  the  manuscript  in  my  posses- 
sion, and  without  any  specification  from  the  Committee,  I  mitigated  some  few 
expressions  that  might  disturb  the  sensitive  by  their  pungency,  and  interlined, 
here  and  there,  a  qualifying  phrase  to  quiet  the  captious.  I  required  them  also 
to  omit  the  common  form  of  endorsement  on  their  title  page — "  Revised  by  the 
Publishing  Committee,"  in  place  of  which,  they  very  kindly  substituted  "  Appro- 
ved by  the  Publishing  Committee,"  which  they  might  very  well  do,  since  the 
vote  of  approval,  as  I  have  been  informed,  was  unanimous. 


NOTE.  251 

an  represented  by  the  Professor's  Seminary,  and,  in  Borne  sense,  contained  in  it, 
had  brought  the  disgraceful  result  to  pass.  Let  him  not  complain,  therefore,  that 
I  have  turned  my  "  wrath"  upon  his  institution,  instead  of  pouring  it  upon  him- 
I  have  laid  the  blow  where  the  blow  belonged,  on  that  metropolis  of  rumor  and 
misconstruction,  where  men  of  a  certain  type  have  gathered  to  foment  their  un- 
illuminated  fears  and  quarrel  with  the  pertinacious  obscurity  of  their  efforts  to 
prevent  a  future.  Besides  I  will  frankly  confess  to  the  public  that  I  had  a  mo- 
tive more  politic  than  the  "  wrath"  ascribed  to  me.  I  wished  to  create  a  self- 
defensive  attitude,  one  that  would  dispense  hereafter  with  the  mortifying  neces- 
sity of  looking  after  my  own  character.  Therefore,  that  the  false  rumors  of 
which  1  have  been  the  silent  victim  heretofore,  and  expect  to  be  the  subject 
hereafter,  may  be  taken  with  due  allowance,  I  determined  to  throw  the  whole 
circle  whence  they  emanate,  into  an  attitude  of  comprehensive  repugnance,  be- 
fore the  public.  I  had  tried  the  consequences  of  a  supposed  footing  of  good  will 
with  this  institution.  I  now  deliberately  calculate  on  the  advantage  to  be  deri- 
ved from  its  enmity.  Its  constructive  enmity,  I  mean,  for  I  trust  there  is  no 
other — certainly  there  is  not  in  me.  I  am  accustomed  to  make  large  allowances 
for  human  infirmity,  and  I  here  declare  that  I  do  full  honor  to  the  Christian 
character  of  my  adversaries.  I  even  compel  myself  to  believe  that  there  has 
been  no  conscious  determination  to  injure  me, — probably  I  have  suffered  no  in- 
jury, save  what  has  resulted  from  human  fallibility,  weakened  by  a  position  that 
holds  a  natural  covenant  with  temptation,  and  is  linked,  as  by  a  doom,  to 
mischief. 

This  explicit  statement  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  make.  I  have  done  it  by  a 
qualified  compulsion  and  it  is  the  last  word  I  design  ever  to  say,  (as  it  is  the 
first,)  for  the  vindication  of  my  own  person.  If  the  statement  now  made  is  not 
more  satisfactory  to  my  adversaries  than  what  I  had  offered  before,  I  hope  they 
will  comfort  themselves  in  the  confidence  that  God  is  just,  and  that  what  they 
suffer  is  the  late,  but  necessary,  penalty  of  what  they  have  done. 


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